


Oh No

by sumfag



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, Horror, furry women, human men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-15 11:41:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 13
Words: 55,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28812837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sumfag/pseuds/sumfag
Summary: David thought his luck had run out when he crashed his motorcycle. He was wrong. Dead wrong.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 69





	1. 1

The university’s health clinic’s waiting room was overflowing with young adults of various shapes and sizes wearing masks running the gambit from the standard disposable worn under the nose, to gauze thin neck gaiters, to homemade affairs that looked part quirky quilt, part hazmat suit. Far from maintaining a two meter distance, all the seats were packed, and most of the rest of the room was filled with awkwardly standing people, flicking through their phones in a bid to not have to make eye contact with anyone else. 

Thanks to the number of students who needed a test to get the waiver that would allow them back to class, the wait time to see a nurse was stretching out in a curve trending more toward exponential than linear. David had already been loitering next to the counter holding the jar of lollipop like free condoms for so long that he no longer flinched whenever someone coughed or sneezed. Long enough for the buzz to be wearing off, and for the tightness in his shoulder and pain in his hand to return.

Unlike seemingly everyone else queued up, David wasn’t there to find out if he was sick. Rather, he was making a belated visit to find out just how badly he’d screwed himself up in a motorcycle accident. It had already been two weeks since he’d high sided on his bike, and things had been going well enough with his self-proscribed regimen of Michelob Ultra, vodka, and pain pills. He was pretty sure he hadn’t broken his shoulder, and the swelling had gone down, almost back to normal. Unfortunately his hand still hurt, and though he’d wrenched it back into its place with a sickening pop a few hours after the accident, his thumb still didn’t have its old range of movement, and certain bones seemed to be in different places compared to his non-injured hand. If it weren’t his note taking hand, he would have just kept on keeping on, but since it was, and it had been long enough for it to heal in his opinion, and it hadn’t, he figured he would go to the free clinic to see if they had anything to say about it.

He had just about convinced himself to leave and come back in a few months when the pandemic was hopefully over, when the heavy door leading to the back, where students had been called for all through the morning, never to be seen again, opened, and an older woman appeared, a heavyset impala who seemed tired. “Davidson?” She called out.

David perked up, along with about half a dozen other human guys spread throughout the room. The nurse glanced up, noticing the confusion. “David,” she clarified. That didn’t seem to help the matter. “David D. Davidson?” She tried again. David and the others continued to look at one another questioningly. “The D stands for Wolfgang?”

David smiled and raised his good hand. “Oh, that’s me.”

“Great, come on back, please,” She replied, and David liked to think that she gave him wide smile under her white cotton mask with a red cross as she held the door wide for him to pass through. After she let the door close behind him, she said “Follow me, this way.”

She led him down a nondescript hall, past a nurse’s station staffed by a pair of co-eds dressed in scrubs, a young lioness with sharp, angular features, her hair in a ponytail, and a short haired bear with a much softer outline and half lidded eyes that gave the impression she was moments away from hibernation. They paused their conversation to watch David walk by, their eyes lingering on the drug store bought hand brace he’d slapped on to hopefully hold his errant bones in place.

The older nurse, left David in a room that smelled of bleach, containing a flimsy examination table covered by a thin sheet a paper, a single chair, a rolling stool next to a counter with a sharps bucket, and a single laminated poster about getting vaccinated for HPV.

Settling into the chair, David pulled out his phone and browsed his usual sites until the impala nurse returned to quickly and efficiently take his vitals with a minimum of discussion. Then it was back to waiting for another eternity before there was a perfunctory knock on the door, and a short stoat wearing a stethoscope walked in without waiting for a response.

She stood just above eye level for David, while he was sitting down, and a third of her height seemed as if it was made up by her fluffy neck. She wore a white lab coat with a nameplate saying Richardson, and a standard white paper disposable mask. She came in with a force that belied her small stature and reached out to take his hand, before thinking better of it, as she introduced herself. “Hello, David, I’m Doctor Becky Richardson. What brings you in today?” With practiced ease she hooked the rolling stool with a foot and pulled it over next to David’s seat and settled down on it.

Feeling a bit embarrassed at relating his story of stupidity to an older woman, David hesitated for a moment before laughing a bit. “Well, I was kind of in a motorcycle accident a few weeks ago, and ever since, my thumb hasn’t been acting the same, so I was hoping you could take a look at it for me.”

“Oh my,” Dr. Richardson said, her eyes above the mask narrowing in concern. She reached out to his damaged hand, and David placed it in her dainty paws. As she unfastened the cheap brace he was wearing, she asked, “How exactly did that happen?”

Smiling sheepishly behind his mask, David said, “Well, I bought a motorcycle about a month ago, so I’m kind of new to riding. I was out with some friends, and we were having fun, until we got to this one hill. I kind of gunned it to catch up to them, but at the top of the hill, the road turned, and I kept going straight. At least until I hit the ditch and tumbled into a field. One minute I’m grabbing the clutch and the brake, and the next thing I remember, I’m lying on my back contemplating just how blue the sky was. My friends came back for me and helped me get the bike back home. I’m still working with the insurance company, but unfortunately it looks like they’re probably going to want to total it.”

“And what about you, did you just hurt your hand in the crash?” She asked while running her warm paws over his much larger hand, probing his wrist and the area around the base of his thumb, causing him to wince as a bone shifted in and out of position.

“Thankfully I was wearing all my gear at the time. You know, helmet, jacket, all that, so I didn’t have any head injuries. Just some scrapes, a lot of bruises. Kind of sprained my shoulder, and of course the thumb thing. Everything’s mostly healed except my hand though.”

“Mostly? Are you sure that you don’t want me to look at your shoulder too?”

David shrugged. “No, I’m not too worried about it. I’m pretty sure I didn’t break anything, and it only hurts when I lift something heavy, but it’s getting better every day. I’m even able to sleep on my side again.”

Dr. Richardson regarded David with concern in her dark black eyes and was silent for a moment. “Okay … Well, we still need to have some x-rays done of your hand to see what’s going on with it. Sit tight and I’ll see if our x-ray technician is in.”

She bounced out of her seat, throwing the brace she’d taken off David’s hand into the trash, and rushed out the door, closing it behind her. Once again, David was left alone for several long boring minutes. It had been years since he’d woken up as early as he had in order to make it to the clinic when it opened, in the hopes of beating the crowd, and the examination room, while stark, was warm. He was on the verge of nodding off when another light rap on the door rang out immediately before the door was opened without allowing any time for David to respond. This time it was a tall, svelte, dark furred canine. She might have been a wolf, but David didn’t want to leap to any stereotypical assumptions.

She was wearing a cloth mask with a smiley face on it, through which, in a gentle, lightly slavic accented voice said, “Hello, my name is ‘Kita, I do the x-rays here. Please come with me.”

David followed her back through the labyrinthine corridors of the office, past the nurses’ station, where the bear and lion from before had been joined by a younger, skinnier, Impala, who was dressed in a short shirt, skinny jeans, and low top sneakers. Unlike the older Impala, she appeared to still derive some joy from the world. She was leaning over the counter, but any conversation they were having was paused as all three watched David walk by. This time with greater interest than previously. The lioness shook her head slightly as if looking at a damn shame.

This wasn’t David’s first time in an x-ray examination room, so he didn’t need any prompting to sit down in the chair next to the large table and place his injured hand under the death cannon hanging from the ceiling. Nikita placed a lead lined blanket on his lap and turned his hand to her satisfaction before retreating behind a small partition on the far side of the room. The fluorescent lights overhead flickered for a few seconds.

A few moments later, Nikita called out in confusion, “Have you had any surgery on your hand?”

David frowned in thought. “No. I don’t remember anything like that.”

Nikita stalked back over and gently ran her finger over the fleshy part of his hand just before his index finger. “Here. Have you had some sort of surgery, or maybe an injury or something?”

Where she indicated was just above a small moon shaped scar that David could clearly remember came from years ago when he was holding a CO2 cartridge for his friend to shoot, when they’d been dicking around in his back yard with pellet guns. His friend’s aim had been less than stellar.

“I did get shot with a pellet gun around there, but that was like ten years ago.”

“Here, come, take a look,” Nikita said, gently holding David’s elbow to help him up. She led him over to the alcove she’d been in where he could see a skeletal hand projected on a screen, with a bright white object just below the index finger, perfectly shaped like an airgun pellet, with one side slightly flattened.

“Huh, I guess it’s still in there,” David said musingly. 

Nikita looked at him askance. 

“It … it doesn’t hurt? You never had anyone look at it, or take it out?”

David shrugged. “Oh, it hurt real bad at first, but I guess it moved around until I just didn’t feel it anymore after the scar healed.” He ran his thumb over his hand. “Huh, now that you mention it, I can feel it kind of rolling around in there. Weird. But it’s not really the problem I came in for …”

“Yes, yes.” Nikita said distractedly. “Let’s finish getting all the angles of your hand and have Dr. Richardson look at them. It’s just that metal, the x-ray always picks up the metal.”

She led David back over to the x-ray table, and they took a couple more x-rays of his hand in various positions before returning him back to the examination room that was starting to feel like a second home to him.

This time he did fall asleep in the less than comfortable chair and was startled awake by the quick rap of a knock and the immediate opening of the door to reveal the stoat with the white coat, Dr. Richardson. “Do you mind coming with me to look at something real quick?” She asked.

David reached up to surreptitiously wipe the drool away from the corner of his mouth, only to run into his mask, and just kind of spread it around. “Sure.”

He followed her into the hallway, past the omnipresent nurses’ station, where the bear nurse was bent over a computer, studiously typing away, while the lioness was flipping through several dense folders. Impala the Younger had disappeared, but there was a new face. A zebra coed with the white parts of her mane shaved away, wearing thick black mascara, black scrubs, some comfortable looking doc martins, and a facemask patterned after zebra stripes, but orientated ninety degrees to her natural pattern. She was handing the lioness a folder when her eyes met David’s, filled with open curiosity. 

It occurred to David that the university’s nursing program might have a gender inequality issue. Then he mentally shrugged. Who was he to judge? As an IT student, the only time he ever saw any women in the technology building, was when they were using a computer in the lab. Though there was the running joke to avoid the dark corners and empty stairwells of the building. Some of the more eccentric anthro women liked to pick off the weakest of the nerds.

Just a few steps away from the nurse’s station, tucked into an alcove in the hallway that looked like it might of previously held a water fountain, was a shelf containing a thin, ancient desktop computer, connected to a monitor showing a very familiar spooky scary skeleton hand with an airgun pellet lodged in it.

“I was just wondering what this was exactly,” Dr. Richardson said as she pulled out a pen from her breast pocket to point out the metal object.

David reflected that for some reason it seemed like he felt kind of silly every time he had a conversation with Dr. Richardson. “Well, that’s a pellet from an airgun that’s been stuck in my hand for like ten years or something,” he explained as he used his good hand to rub the back of his neck.

“And were you aware it was stuck in your hand?”

David shook his head. “I remember when it happened, but I didn’t realize it was still there until like ten minutes ago when Nikita and I saw it on the x-ray. Pretty wild, right? But really I’m more concerned about my thumb right now.”

Dr. Richardson looked up at him levelly for a moment then shook her head with a sigh. “David, I’ve got some concerns. If we weren’t so incredibly busy …” She sighed again before turning back to the x-ray. “Well, none of your bones are obviously broken. I’ll send it out for an overnight reading by a specialist, but it does look like this bone back here behind your thumb might be out of place. Wearing an actual medical brace should help with that, and I’ll prescribe you some muscle relaxants and pain killers that should help you.”

“I’ve got that covered,” David said confidently. “I’ve been taking vodka, aspirin, and Tylenol, so that’s basically pain pills and liquid muscle relaxant already.”

“You’ve been taking aspirin and Tylenol together?” Dr. Richardson asked incredulously.

David hurried to reassure her. “Oh, I haven’t been double dosing or anything like that. It’s just that I throw all my pain pills in one big bottle. I only take two every couple of hours, if the pain’s bad enough. Sometimes it’s aspirin, sometimes Tylenol PM, sometimes ibuprofen, it’s like a box of chocolates, but pain pills.”

Dr. Richardson closed her eyes and let out a high-pitched sound that was honestly quite frightening for David. He had no idea how he was supposed to react, but thankfully she stopped after a couple of seconds and grabbed his shirt with one hand while gesticulating sharply with the other. “All that, everything you just said, stop that. Don’t ever do that again. Ever. You stupid, dumb, fool. Just … just see Tanya, get your hand wrapped up, promise me to get your prescription filled, and please, if your hand gets worse, come back here, or if it’s an emergency, go to the E.R. But stop all this,” She waved her hand around, searching for the words, “home remedy. Just stop it. When something bad happens, or something hurts, come in and have it looked at. Okay?”

Holding his hands up placatingly, David said, “Yeah, okay, sure. I promise, all right?”

With a final huff, and a no-nonsense stare into his eyes, Dr. Richardson let go of his shirt and returned to a social distance. “Good. I’m going to go write up my notes and send that x-ray out to be reviewed. It was nice to meet you, David, but please try and take better care of yourself.”

“Sure thing. It was nice to meet you too, Dr. Richardson, and thanks for looking at me.”

The short stoat nodded at him, and turned to walk back to her office, with only one last worried glance in David’s direction.

The zebra from earlier pushed off from the counter around the nurses’ station and pulled David by his uninjured hand back to the examination room. “You banged up your hand, huh?” She asked with a smoky but monotone voice.

“Yeah, motorcycle accident.”

“That sucks.” She guided him back to the chair as she settled on the rolling stool, a cylinder of gauze in her hoof. “You planning on riding again?” 

David didn’t even need to think about his reply. “Yeah, once my hand heals up and the insurance company figures out whether they’ll fix my bike or buy me a new one.”

“Cool,” the zebra said. She pulled out a black pen and began drawing a few symbols on part of the gauze she’d unwound.

“What’s that?” David asked after watching her draw something that looked like it was from Fullmetal Alchemist. 

She didn’t look up, or pause as she replied, “Something for protection.”

He could always use more protection, and it wasn’t like it was hurting anything. “Oh cool.”

After a few minutes she finished her drawings and began to tightly wrap the bandage around David’s hand, the symbols pressed over the base of his wrist. David hissed a bit in pain when his bones shifted as the bandages tightened, but he assumed that was them just going back to where they needed to be and sucked it up.

“There we go. Now try not to let that get too wet, and don’t take it off for at least a few days. Preferably a week. If it does come undone, just come back, and I’ll be more than happy to tie it for you again, David.”

“Cool, thanks …” 

It was at that moment that David realized he had no idea what her name was, and so his s just trailed off until she was kind enough to fill in “Tanya, my name is Tanya,” for him.

“Sweet, thanks, Tanya.”

“’No prob, dude.’ Now, let’s get your prescription printed and get you checked out.”

She led him back to the nurses’ station, where after filling out some paperwork, and being handed a sheet of medications to be filled, which he balled up and shoved into his back pocket, he was directed to a heavy door in the back of the building. Pushing it open, he found himself on the boulevard between the Literature building and the Biology building. Flexing his bandaged hand a bit, and wincing at the new pain of his bones popping out and into place, David began walking toward the Engineering building, and the bus station beyond, appreciating the orange and red leaves that were swaying and dancing in the slightly cool breeze.

It had been a while since he’d left his apartment. Even before the coof had hit, he’d been able to get all online classes, so he’d woken up whenever he wanted and pretty much did whatever he wanted, when he wanted, only logging in to rush and bang out assignments a few hours before they were due.

Compared to how crowded the clinic had been, campus, and the bus back to his apartment were surprisingly sparse. Though it took over half an hour for the bus to make it to his run-down neighborhood, he hadn’t had to interact with anyone else. He could have had an entire row of seats all to himself, if he hadn’t decided that simply leaning against one of the bars would probably be more hygienic.

The apartment complex he lived in was one of the more popular ones for transient students. It was huge, cheap, and just past comfortable walking distance from campus. A fact that students only realized a few months after they moved in, around the same time that the lackadaisical maintenance, shoddy construction, and ambivalence of the owners, who lived on the other side of the country, became apparent. If a resident fulfilled their lease before moving out, they were considered one of the old timers by most. Only a few, such as David, and the shirtless guy who did nothing but sit on his balcony and drink all day while scowling at the world, were masochistic enough to have lived there long enough that they were seen as permanent fixtures. 

David hopped off the bus and waved to shirtless guy, who didn’t break his thousand-yard stare to acknowledge David’s existence, as he lifted a paper bag wrapped bottle of mad dog to his lips. David didn’t let it get to him. Shirtless guy had never responded to him before, so why would he start now?

Ever since the coof had hit, all the residents who could leave had, so the massive parking lots the complex was built around were empty as David walked through them, aiming for his own home away from home tucked away in one of the rearmost buildings. Hundreds of silent apartments watched his progress with their dark, empty windows.

Climbing the steps to his domicile, David rattled the door open and promptly tossed the prescription in some corner of the living room, and his mask towards the coffee table that had never held coffee, but was overflowing with old pizza boxes, some of which still held stale slices that constituted his emergency food supply. He fished out a couple of pills from the pain pill bottle, and chased them with a shot of vodka before wincing at the aftertaste. He quickly made himself a screwdriver with questionably expired Sunny Delight. Unfortunately, he’d already drunk his way through his normal alcohol reserves, and had even gone through the emergency vodka. All that was left was the cheap bulk vodka usually reserved for hunch punch. He needed to make a run to the liquor store, but that was something future David could handle.

In the meantime he turned on the TV, which was already on Nick, and settled onto the couch that had been stained and warped before he’d found it next to the dumpster, and mindlessly watched the flashing colors of Spongebob as his medication kicked in. At some point, after a few more mouth curdling shots of vodka, David felt tired, and like he needed to pee. Deciding to take care of the latter first, and the former second, he lurched up and ascended the spiral staircase to the second floor that was wrapped with Christmas lights. Half of which actually worked.

There was a bedroom and bathroom on the first floor, but they belonged to his erstwhile roommate. A roommate he had spoken to only a few times, and who he hadn’t seen in a few months. David assumed that he’d packed up and went home when things first began going crazy. All he really knew was that he hadn’t seen hide nor hair of the guy, and the door had been locked, all year.

Upstairs, David waded through the layer of pizza boxes, taco wrappers, dirty clothes, empty bottles, hopefully empty solo cups, and various other detritus that acted as a patina to his carpet on the way to his bathroom. Taking care of his business, he waded over to his bed, and feeling overly hot, managed to shuck off his shirt before falling onto it. Though he was lying still, it felt as if the room was spinning as he drifted off to sleep.

Sometime in the early hours of the morning, something roused David from his drunken slumber. It took him a few seconds of bleary consciousness, before he realized that it was bone achingly cold in his room. The nights were becoming colder, but the days were still rather warm, so he hadn’t adjusted the thermostat for winter yet. Burrowing under his blankets, David shivered as he waited for his body heat to do its thing. In the meantime, he listened to the wind pass through the trees outside, causing the branches to tap against the glass of the room’s skylights rhythmically. It almost sounded like the wind was saying “Daaaavvvviiiiiiieeeee” in a low, breathless, sing-song voice. Soon enough his blankets warmed up enough that he was able to fall asleep again, and this time he managed to lose consciousness all the way until an errant beam of light hit his eyes. Which, judging by the sun’s position in the unobstructed skylight overhead, meant it was somewhere between midmorning and noon. A bit early for David, but getting up early every once in a while was good for you, right?

Wincing at his cotton mouth, David drank from one of the half-filled water bottles on his nightstand that probably hadn’t been sitting out too long. He threw on a shirt and headed downstairs. 

The kitchen cupboards were rather bare. He did have all the important condiments, such as ketchup, mustard, soy sauce, cock sauce, and a can of spam, but little else besides that. In contrast, the counter tops were rather full of garbage from take outs and deliveries of yore. The kitchen sink was full of dishes that had been soaking for at least a month. When he finally mustered up enough strength to overcome the threatening odor that was emanating from them, he was sure that whatever residue that had been burned on to them would slide right off. His gaze moved from the dishes in the sink to the view from the window just above. There was a rolling field behind the apartment, leading to the distant tree line, where the foliage had turned a riot of colors ranging from red, to orange, to amber, to brown. Fall was definitely David’s favorite time of year.

Continuing on with his search for sustenance, David opened the fridge. Ignoring the mystery pot, it looked like the only thing with calories was the questionable Sunny D, which, much like trees or ice cores, bore rings around the container, denoting the level the liquid within had previously been at. He would be more than happy to settle for the beverage as breakfast, but he’d run out of vodka to mix with it, not to mention rum, gin, or Everclear. Self-medication was proving to be an expensive habit.

He’d just begun to check the bus schedule on his phone in order to plan an expedition to the liquor and grocery stores, when there came a rapping on his apartment door. David couldn’t recall making an order through grubhub, door dash, or even uber eats, so it was with some perplexity that he walked over and opened the door.

Standing there, positively beaming through her white cotton mask, was a tall Pomeranian, or some other type of dog that was fluffy, extraordinarily fluffy. Her fur was golden in color, and seemed barely contained by the soft beige sweater and white capri pants she was wearing. Especially her rather generous bosom. Her eyes were a gentle sky blue and were focused down on David, since she stood a few inches taller than him in her slip on vans.

“Hello,” she said in a very chipper manner, one hand raised in a wave. “I’m Becky, your new downstairs neighbor! I hope I didn’t bother you yesterday when I was moving in.”

“Uh, hey, I’m David,” David intelligently replied. “No, I didn’t notice at all to be honest. Hopefully I didn’t keep you up with my television. I usually keep late hours, and I know how thin the walls here are. If I knew that someone had moved in below me, I would have toned it down.”

Becky rolled her head with a laugh. “Oh, don’t worry about that at all, David. You didn’t bother me in the slightest. I just thought that since I moved in, I’d go ahead and introduce myself to the new neighbors. It’s important to get started on the right foot, don’t you think?”

A bit flummoxed by the whole encounter, David replied, “Uh, yeah. That’s real nice of you.” Should he be making a plate of cookies, or a Jello mold for her or something? The decades of generational learning hadn’t prepared him for the anachronism standing before him.

“Well, I just wanted to stop by and say hello,” Becky said. “And invite you to my move in party.” She looked past David and commented, “Though, it looks like you’ve just thrown a party of your own. Do you need any help cleaning all of that up?”

David glanced back at the mess behind him and closed the door against him to try and block her sight of his unsightly mess. “No, I think I’ve got it. Thanks though. It was nice to meet you. Let me know if you have any questions about the complex, like where the dumpsters are. I know that the apartment manager isn’t the most welcoming guy.”

“Thanks, David, I’ll do that. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you a lot as I settle in. It was nice to meet you,” she said with a wave as she turned and began descending the stairs to the first floor.

David wiggled his fingers in a wave and smiled at her retreating form before closing the door and thinking to himself how odd and yet how pleasant the encounter had been. Becky had been wearing some sort of perfume, or body wash, that still surrounded him and smelled sweet and familiar somehow. With a sigh, David took in the mess that was his apartment and added cleaning supplies to his mental list of necessities that he needed to purchase. Whether he’d actually use them was still to be seen.

He returned to his room and wrapped his hand in a plastic bag, then took a shower. While there were mounds of clothes of questionable cleanliness spread throughout his room, for some reason he seemed to cycle through just a few outfits. Picking up the next one in line from the short pile of clean clothes, David dressed himself. Completing the sub-quests of finding his wallet, keys, phone, mask, and shoes, which were hidden throughout the apartment, David headed out for the bus stop.

It only took around half an hour of waiting around to die for the bus to show up, and after an uneventful twenty-minute ride, David found himself at the nearest supercenter. With a sigh, he steeled himself and walked inside. For some reason, any time he had to visit the ultimate expression of capitalism, it felt like a soul-sucking experience that devoured an innumerable number of hours. This trip was no different. Though for some reason it took him nearly three hours to get in and out, with at least half of that stuck in line to check out, David was surprised the sun was still out when he left the store with a fistful of plastic bags. Making a side trip to the conveniently located liquor store next door, David compromised due to the weight he was already carrying, and settled on buying just a gallon of vodka. And a tiny little 250 ml bottle of rum.

Another hour of waiting and riding, found David hauling his loot back through the canyon of empty apartments on the way to his home. Walking up the stairs to his front door, he glanced through the first floor’s Venetian blinds and saw Becky working on something while sitting on her couch. Unpacking, David supposed.

He set his shopping down on a mostly open space on the kitchen counter, and poured himself a drink. Holding the bags had done a number on his thumb. As he sipped at his screwdriver, he contemplated the still full shopping bags and the filthy apartment surrounding him. He sighed. He knew himself well enough to know that if he put off cleaning up, then it would probably be at least another month until he dredged up enough motivation again to start working on things.

So David unpacked his shopping, and opening up one of the newly purchased black trash bags with a snap, began shoving empty pizza boxes into its depths. A few mind numbing hours later and the worst of the garbage was concentrated in a heap of black trash bags stacked next to the front door, threatening to crash in an avalanche of refuse at any moment. The dish washer he’d forgotten he had was running, as was the clothes washing machine, which was almost invisible behind the mound of funky laundry he’d gathered. The floors were still covered with crumbs, lint, and some dust, but David didn’t own a vacuum. Maybe one of his friends did, and they’d let him borrow it.

He opened his front door, the first of several loads of trash bags destined for the dumpster in his hands, and found that the day was nearly over. The sun had just disappeared beyond the trees in the distance and the sky was died in reds, oranges, and navy blue. Carrying his clinking cargo, careful not to let it touch him, lest something ooze out and stain his clothes, David made the trip across the complex to where the nearly empty garbage dumpster was located. He tossed the first load over the side and heard it clatter against the metal.

A voice from behind him caused David to jump.

“Howdy, neighbor.” Startled, David spun around and found Becky standing a short distance away. She was smiling down at him, one hand raised in a little wave. “I saw you passing by, and I decided to stalk you,” she said with a grin, her sharp teeth in a wolfish grin.

Sighing in relief, David smiled back. “Hey, Becky, I was just tossing some garbage out.”

Her eyes flicked down to his hand, and noticing the wrapping around it, she asked with concern, “Oh no, did you hurt your hand?”

David laughed sheepishly. “Yeah, motorcycle accident. It’s not hurting as much as it was, but it’s still bothering me from time to time.”

“That sounds unpleasant. Do you need help with taking out the trash?”

Impulsively, David was going to answer no, that he had it, but a dull throb ran through his hand, and a stiff breeze kicked up, emphasizing the fact that the day’s warmth was quickly fading with the coming night. “Sure, thanks, that’d be a huge help.”

They walked back to his apartment, chatting along the way. She apparently worked for some government agency, and had just relocated to the area. Most of the discussion was Becky nodding along as David talked about the town, what there was to do, what there was to see. Somehow he found himself explaining how he’d ended up at that particular university, the friends he had, and his love life, or lack thereof. Thankfully, they reached his apartment before he could go into too great a depth, but it was kind of odd. Usually he never opened up so much with someone so quickly.

Once she stepped inside David’s apartment, Becky took an appreciative look around, and immediately noticing mount garbage, happily said, “I guess I’ll just take care of this then. I’m worried about your hand, so why don’t you stay here and rest for a bit.”

David was going to argue, but swallowed his words when she grabbed two fistfuls of garbage bags, and picked up the entire pile. Impressed, David could only watch as she maneuvered out of the door and down the stairs. Figuring it would be polite to pay her back for the help, David decided he’d at least offer her dinner. Not that he had any ingredients to make anything, but he did have a menu from every restaurant that delivered in town. Not sure what she’d be in the mood for, he retrieved a sample of menus from the better restaurants and prepared them for Becky’s perusal. He took a moment to look around and appreciate how much larger the apartment was when it wasn’t overflowing with garbage. 

Noticing that a load of laundry was finished, he pulled the warm clothes from the drier and transferred the wet clothes from one machine to the other. He was in the midst of folding his clothes, as best he was able, when Becky returned. “I think you filled up the dumpster, David. Hopefully they come and empty it soon.”

David laughed at what he assumed was her hyperbole. “Thanks for helping me out with that, Becky. If you want to wash your hands, unfortunately I’ve just got the dish soap. Hope that’s okay.”

Becky grinned. “That’s fine.”

She squeezed past the laundry closet David was standing in front of and ducked into the cramped kitchen to wash her hands. David continued to fold laundry as he asked over his shoulder, “Are you hungry? I was thinking of ordering something for dinner to pay you back for the help.”

“Sure, that sounds good. But, don’t you think we should finish cleaning up before that?”

David looked around the now spartan apartment in confusion. “We’re not done?”

Becky looked upon him with pitying amusement. “Not really. I mean, if you really want to clean this place up. This place needs at least a dusting, and a good vacuuming.”

“Hmm, I don’t have a duster, or vacuum,” David mused

Becky rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry, I’ve unpacked mine. Let me go get them and we can work on finishing this place up. Why don’t you order something for us while I’m gone, so it’ll be here when we’re finished?”

“Sure, what sounds good?”

“How about Chinese? Beef and broccoli, and some egg foo young for me, please,” Becky called out as she strode past David and toward the front door. “Really I’m fine with anything though. I don’t want to clean out your bank account. I know how strapped for cash you college kids are.”

David acted offended. “I’ll have you know that I live a life of deprivation out of choice, not necessity.”

With a smile that revealed her sharp canines again, Becky replied, “In that case, I’d also like the appetizers. All of them. Back in a sec.”

She disappeared through the door and after he finished transforming the ball of dry laundry into a somewhat more organized pile, David carried his clothes upstairs and dumped it into a new pile in the closet. He then called his favorite restaurant and placed an order. By the time he was done, Becky was coming back through the front door, a vacuum in one hand, a pile of swifters and other cleaning supplies in the other.

David went to help her, but she held the cleaning items over his head and said, “Nuh uh, David. You’re convalescing. Leave the rest of the cleaning to me.”

He hopped up to grab the supplies, and she jerked them just out of his reach. With an awkward smile, David said, “My hand’s hurting. It’s not like I have a broken arm or something. Besides, you’re my guest, it’d be weird to make you do all the work while I sit around and relax.”

Becky contemplated him for a moment before smiling. “I suppose you’re right. Here, you vacuum, I’ll dust. How does that sound?”

She handed David the vacuum, and he nearly dropped it from the unexpected weight. Refusing to look in Becky’s direction to see her likely smug expression, he plugged it into the nearest receptacle and studied its controls for a few moments, trying to figure out what all the other buttons and levers aside from the on/off were for. Meanwhile, Becky went to work. She started spraying down the kitchen counters with cleaner and wiping them off.

They continued on like that for a bit, Becky cleaning all the flat surfaces, David, after he eventually figured out how to turn it on, slowly vacuuming the carpet. It was slow going on his part, because it sounded like he was vacuuming up a tray of BB’s every time he pushed the vacuum forward. Hoping not to burn out the motor, he took it slow, and noticed that as he passed, the color of the carpet changed.

Eventually he’d chased the last of the dusty tumbleweeds to their stronghold, the space under the stairs to his bedroom, and had vanquished all the dirt on the first floor. He turned the vacuum off and looked around, wondering where Becky had gone to, when she descended the stairs with a small trash bag. “I finished your room, David. If you hand me the vacuum, I can take it upstairs for you.”

His masculine pride already in tatters, David simply unplugged the vacuum from the wall and handed it to her. She disappeared back upstairs with the machine, and just as David was about to follow her, there was a knock on the front door. It was the usual delivery guy bearing a very large plastic bag. By the time David had signed the receipt, and plopped the bags on the freshly cleaned counter, the sound of the vacuum running upstairs could be heard. 

Deciding that he didn’t feel like getting into another disagreement with Becky, especially since she’d already begun the task, David retrieved a couple of plates from the cabinet where dishes were supposed to be stored, and began to serve dinner. 

While it had taken him a considerable time to vacuum the living area, Becky finished the bedroom in a matter of minutes. She clambered down the stairs, the infernal machine in tow. Seeing the plated food, she smiled and said, “Perfect timing.” She set the vacuum by the front door as David brought the food over to the coffee table in front of the TV.

Queuing up the streaming service du jour, David handed the remote to Becky since she was his guest and all. They settled onto either end of the couch that was still beat up and stained, even post cleaning. She selected an 80’s slasher movie and they enjoyed the terrible special effects and the varied means of killing all the teenagers who engaged in premarital sex, as they feasted on cheap take out.

Maybe due to the way the couch slumped, David found that they’d slid closer to one another. Close enough where he could feel the heat radiating from Becky. As she leaned forward to snatch another egg roll, her arm brushed David’s, and he couldn’t help but breathe in her scent. It was lavender, with a hint of not unpleasant body odor, probably from all the heavy lifting he’d made her do, and a faint undercurrent of something like freshly turned earth. Figuring he was a bit too close for comfort, David surreptitiously moved further away, and tried to keep some distance between them while they finished the movie.

Afterwards, David gathered together the used plates and refuse from dinner while Becky stretched with a satisfied groan. “It’s been years since I saw that one,” she observed.

“They definitely don’t make them like that anymore,” David said as he tossed some garbage into the trashcan, and then set their plates in the sink. In doing so, he glanced out the tiny window placed just above it.

The sun had set, and the field between the apartment and the distant woods was a sea of shadows, rolling in the night breeze. But there was a figure out there. A shadow darker than the others, made small by the distance, standing still, staring in his direction. David couldn’t possibly tell if that was actually the case, he just felt it intuitively. Unlike the branches of the trees on the horizon, or the long grass surrounding it, this shadow wasn’t affected by the wind at all. It was a spot of stillness in an otherwise normal scene. The deathlike serenity is what had caught his eye.

A plate slipped from David’s hand, and he reflexively looked down, then immediately looked back out the window, but he wasn’t able to pick out the particular shadow he’d seen before.

“Well, it’s getting late, I guess I’d better be going,” Becky said from behind him.

“Yeah,” David said absently, before coming back to himself. He turned around, pushing what he’d seen from his mind. “I mean, thanks, for all your help. I’m glad you were here, Becky.”

She gave him a soft, sincere smile. “I’m glad I was here too, David. I had fun. Especially when I was going through your underwear drawer. We should do it again sometime.” She opened the front door and picked up the vacuum.

David rolled his eyes as he walked over toward her. “Yeah, sounds like a plan. Maybe next time I won’t force you to clean my filthy apartment.”

“Aw, but it’s not as satisfying, cleaning an already clean apartment.”

David laughed. “Night, Becky.”

“Night, David,” Becky said with a little wave as she descended the stairs.

He closed the door and went through the living room, flicking off the lights. Climbing the stairs, he once again marveled at just how much space there was in his room now that it wasn’t full of garbage. A quick shower and oral hygiene routine later, and he fell into his bed, illuminated by the glow of the LEDs from the various charging devices and chargers scattered throughout the room. It was far too early for his normal bed time, but he was still feeling tired from having to wake up so early the day before to visit the clinic, combined with all the physical and mental labor he’d endured. Hugging his pillow, he began browsing the usual sites on his phone, and at some point, his eyes just fell shut and his screen went dark for one last time.

Several hours later, as the waning moon poured softly broken light through the skylights above, David fuzzily returned to consciousness. He was laying on his side, wondering what it was that woke him, when he became aware of a sound. It was a rhythmical squeak, too loud to be coming from another room, too quiet to be coming from around his bed. After a few moments thinking about it, David identified the sound as the chain on the light in his closet. It must be swinging in the breeze from the A/C, though that didn’t feel like the correct answer, since the chain was moving quite forcefully.

Abruptly it stopped. Not with the gradual slowing of a pendulum, but as if it had been caught at the apogee of it’s arc. David waited a few seconds for it to resume, but then mentally shrugged to himself. It must have been swinging so wildly that it had become caught on something in there.

The way he was laying, he was facing the closet, and idly watched it as he listened to the darkness. His eyes were growing heavy and he was on the verge of sleeping again, when the closet’s door swung open. It did so slowly, noiselessly. David wouldn’t even have noticed its motion, if its white surface didn’t reflect the white moonlight as it did so. It opened slowly, as if pushed near the hinge. Maybe it was the A/C again.

Revealed by the open door was a solid rectangle of darkness. It was an opaque blackness that both defied and taunted David. It seemed to say to him, “All you need to do is shine a light my way, and you’ll be able to see everything, but I know you’re too much of a coward.”

He laid there for who knows how long, staring into the darkness. But nothing happened. 

Eventually David chalked up the uneasy feelings he was feeling to the horror movie he’d watched earlier, and rolled over to go to sleep.


	2. 2

The next thing he knew, sunlight poked his eye, invading the maze he’d made with the comforter over his head. With a yawn he sat up in bed and unlocked his phone to see what he’d missed while asleep. Vaguely remembering what had happened the night before, he glanced toward the closet and saw the door was firmly closed.

Feeling a vague sense of unease, David reached for a new shirt and an old pair of pants, but his grasping hand came up empty, reminding him that he’d cleaned up yesterday, and all his clothes were now stacked in more or less neat piles in the closet. With a derisive chuckle at his own childishness, he slid out of bed and padded over to the closet.

Pausing for a moment, just as his hand was about to grasp the knob, David hesitated long enough to take a bracing breath, then he grabbed it firmly and pulled the door forcibly wide open. Inside, everything was just as he’d left it. Piles of clothes on the floor, bare hangers dangling from the wire shelves, a light bulb suspended from the ceiling with a beaded metal chain hanging from its side. There was a single A/C vent in the ceiling at the far end of the closet, and from where David stood, it was obvious that its louvers were fully closed. Dismissing what had happened the previous night as some sort of alcohol fueled dream, David gathered some clothes, tossing them on as he headed downstairs to find something for breakfast.

He’d purchased some eggs, cheese, and sauerkraut to make an omelet, and while, like most things in life, it didn’t turn out exactly how he’d envisioned it going, the scrambled eggs were still good, though they didn’t pair all that well with his morning pills and screwdriver chaser. He was just about to leave the pan and dishes, alongside the plates from last night, in the sink to soak, when he thought about the possibility of Becky coming over again. Reluctantly, he rinsed everything off and then loaded them into the dishwasher. As he was doing so, he glanced occasionally through the window above the sink.

In the daylight, the field of green, slightly overgrown grass wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. Coupled with the vibrant blue, cloudless sky, the gentle breeze which caused the plants to sway, and the backdrop of brilliantly colored it foliage, it was actually quite picturesque. Even after he was finished with the dishes, he stared out of the window as he sipped his drink. That’s when he noticed something odd along the forest’s treeline.

It was hard to tell what it was due to the distance, but it looked like a pale white face, though there was something off about it. For one thing, it seemed quite narrow, and the black smudge that might be eyes were rather high on it, instinctively causing David to think it was an anthro of some sort. The other weird thing about it was that it was so far off the ground. Based off the trees and undergrowth around it, the face must have been floating ten feet in the air. It was probably an owl, or some other bird, and his pareidolia was just kicking in.

David’s musings were cut short by the faint sound of a trashcan full of mildly upset wasps. It was the familiar sound of his friend Stanley’s ‘performance’ muffler. Finishing off his drink and setting the cup on the counter in anticipation of the next one he’d pour, David ambled over to the front door and watched as his friend pulled into the parking lot. 

Stanley was the typical rich kid who’d embraced bohemianism once he’d found collegiate freedom. He’d spent a small fortune to appear as if he were on the cusp of homelessness, knew every weed dealer in town, and had a reverential respect for anyone who played the guitar, since he aspired to play himself some day. The motorcycle he was riding looked like, and for the most part was, a hodgepodge of parts held together by heat wrap and duct tape, but it had begun life as a mid eighties BMW.

“Stan the man, how goes it?” David asked as Stanley took off the eastern European military surplus helmet he used and tossed it onto the bike.

Stanley pushed his long hair out of his face as he rapidly mounted the stairs to David’s apartment, loudly exclaiming, “I’ve had an epiphany, D! Where do you keep the gin?”

David let him brush past him and into the apartment, wincing a bit at the wave of stale body odor. He closed the door and said, “Sorry man, just have some vodka, and a bit of rum. What’s the epiphany? Finally realize you should have been a computer engineer instead of a computer scientist?”

“No,” Stanley replied as he poured a large helping of vodka from the plastic jug into a solo cup. “I’d actually have to try if I did that. No, what I realized last night, while I was drawing inspiration from a collection of trance remixes of witch house covers of classic grunge songs -”

“While you were blazed off your ass,” David added.

“While I was blazed out of my fucking skull!” Stanley took a large gulp from his cup. “That’s when I realized the truth. This virus man, everyone’s been going on about how it’s the end of the world, and how the economy is collapsing, wall street’s collapsing, main street’s collapsing, everything is collapsing. And I realized that’s not a bad thing. It’s like Picasso said, every act of creation begins first as destruction. This whole thing has been a wake up call, an opportunity. Fuck the old world man, that shit sucked. Wake up and go to school for twelve years, then another four years of college. Get a job, work at it for forty years, then retire and hope you have enough money saved up to keep surviving until your prostate or whatever blows up and kills you. Fuck all that.” He continued downing vodka like it was water. “This virus is our chance to break away from all of that bullshit. We’re the digital generation baby, we don’t have to be here, doing this, we can be doing anything from anywhere.”

David smiled indulgently. “Okay, such as?”

“Anything, man. Something better than hanging around here waiting to die.” Stanley leaned across the counter conspiratorially and lowered his voice. “I realized last night, I’m free. You’re free, everyone’s free. Just no one realizes it, man. But I finally do. I get it now. So I’m going to go and do it, and fuck anyone or anything that gets in my way.”

“Do what?”

Stanley's face stretched into a huge grin. “That’s just it man, I don’t know, but it will be something. I was on my way to the airport to find the first plane heading overseas, when I realized I was passing by your apartment, and I should probably tell you about the truth before I’m gone. After this, I’m going to just keep on going, all the way man, until I get to where I need to be, and realize what I need to be doing.”

David laughed disbelievingly. “You do know that most places have travel embargoes in place. Especially for travelers from here.”

With a shake of his head, Stanley replied, “Where I’m going, embargoes don’t exist. And even if someone does try to stop me, I won’t let them because I finally realized, I’m free. Now no one can touch me. It’d be like stopping the ocean. I’m fucking inevitable, man.” His face wrinkled in sorrow, and he appeared troubled. “But, I know that you can’t go with me. You haven’t been where I have, learned what I have, so you can’t walk the same path as I do. But maybe someday we’ll meet again, on the flipside.”

“Sure man, we’ll catch each other on the flipside,” David said, already imagining the call he’d be getting at two in the morning in a week or two from a chagrined Stanley who needed someone to drive ten hours to pay bail.

Stanley pounded the counter with both his hands and then thrust one out toward David to shake. David glanced at it for a moment before taking it. They exchanged a hearty shake. “It has been an honor, sir,” Stanley said with gravitas. Then, in a much more jocular tone, “Well, time for me to hit the ol’ dusty trail. I’ll let you know when I get to where I’m going.”

Nonplussed, David said, “Yeah, see you.”

Stanley strode across the room and out the door as if he were running for his life. He skipped down the stairs, and tossed his helmet on without bothering to secure its strap. David followed him out part of the way and stood on the balcony. Stanley jumped on his bike, started it, and gave David one final wave before riding off into the mid-morning in a cloud of blue smoke.

“Friend of yours?” A low voice asked from below and behind David, causing him to jump. 

He whirled around to find Becky standing in the shade of the balcony. She was wearing a black sweater and black jeans. Her face was obscured by shadow, but her eyes glinted coldly in the morning light. “Yeah. His name’s Stanley. We’ve been friends since high school.”

“Oh? Was he one of the ones with you when you hurt your hand in the accident?”

David frowned slightly. He didn’t recall telling Becky how he’d injured his hand, but then again, maybe he’d mentioned it at some point yesterday in passing. “No, that was my other friend, Dan.”

With a flat voice, Becky said, “I see, Daniel...” She stepped into the sunlight and gave David a warm smile. “Well, anyway, how are you doing today, David?”

With a shrug, David replied, “Just another day in paradise. How about you? Still settling in?”

“Just about finished. Though I just remembered this morning that I need to run out and take care of a few things. Do you have any exciting plans for today?” 

David took about a picosecond to think over his schedule. “Oh, just the normal, do a bit of studying, finish up some course work, prepare for the next class.” By which he meant playing video games until his ass was sore then glancing at his course calendar to see if there was anything due that he needed to bang out at the last minute.

“Well, maybe if you have some free time after all that studying, I could come over again and we could watch another movie,” Becky said, laying her large hand over his on the stair’s railing.

Staring down at her warm hand, feeling flustered, David replied, “Y-You too. I mean, if you have free time later, feel free to come on up. I should be around. I’m not going anywhere.”

Becky smiled, her eyes narrowed in satisfaction. “That sounds nice, David. I guess I should get ready to go then, so I don’t keep you waiting later.”

“Sounds good, I mean, great,” David said stupidly, giving her a thumbs up, which he immediately regretted as his thumb tried to pop out of its socket. Her smile turning into a smirk, Becky let his hand go and walked back towards her apartment. She turned around at the door and gave David a little wave that he returned, a bit gobsmacked at the unexpected attention. He was about 75% sure that Becky was sending him signals that she was romantically interested in him, which would be cool. Really cool. 

Tripping back upstairs, David plopped down on his couch and thought about how a fluffy, curvaceous woman such as Becky would feel pressed against him as he started up his console. He wasn’t really paying attention to the game he was playing, his mind occupied by what his and Becky’s kids would look like, and how warm and soft she’d feel under his hands. At least he wasn’t paying all that much attention until someone who sounded like their balls had yet to drop called him a scrubby faggot. Then David gave his full, undivided attention to the game and to teabagging the offender until he rage quit. Afterwards, David flipped between fps and moba games as his fancy took him, with the occasional break to take a couple more pills whenever the pain from exercising his thumb got to him. 

Much later, from the position of the sunlight coming through the blinds, it was sometime around mid-afternoon, and David was taking it easy, sitting in his lane, waiting for a push from the opposing team, when he heard something odd.

The couch he was sitting on was situated against the wall shared by the empty bedroom of his former room mate, and without warning, he could hear a faint scratching sound coming from just behind his head. He wasn’t sure what it was at first, and cocked his head for a moment before turning his whole body around to stare at the blank wall as the sound repeated.

From the other side, it continued at irregular intervals, sounding like someone was lightly dragging a stick against the wall, trying to tunnel through it Shawshank style. Could all the garbage he’d pilled up have attracted rats? The thought of some unknown vermin crawling over his things while he’d been unaware, caused David to shiver a bit and feel somewhat violated. He quit the game, and started thinking about his options, just as the scratching sound died down. Sitting still, trying to be as silent as possible, David waited to see if the noises came back. 

Silence reigned long enough for him to begin letting his guard down and start to dismiss what he’d heard as his overactive imagination, or some sort of natural phenomena that happened in houses as they aged. Maybe the wall was settling or something. It was getting colder outside, maybe it was thermal contraction. Just as he was feeling complacent again, and was about to resume his game, a new noise came from the locked room.

It was the sound of the floorboard groaning lightly, as if someone had just stepped out of bed. Several moments later, it was followed by another, and then another. If David had been counting, he would probably have estimated that there were no more than three or four steps a minute. But his mind was occupied by a rising sense of dread, noticing that the steps that had begun near the far corner of the room, were methodically moving toward the door he was sitting next to. 

His body was rigid with tension and a bead of sweat rolled down his temple as David tracked the steps in his imagination as they crossed the room until they stopped a few feet short of the door. He waited, and then waited some more, and then continued to wait, for a full ten minutes, but the sounds didn’t come again. Hesitantly, he raised himself off the couch and, as if in a trance, slowly approached the door. His hand shook slightly as he reached out and jiggled the knob, finding that it was still indeed locked.

While trying to open the door, David became aware of a horrid, putrid odor that seemed to come from nowhere, but permeate everything in an instant. It smelled like the decaying muck from a swamp or a marsh, and it was overwhelming. He was struck with the thought that maybe his room mate hadn’t moved out. Maybe he’d gotten sick or something and was stuck in there. David tried twisting the knob back and forth with more force, but it refused to budge, so he banged on the door a few times and yelled out, “Hey man, are you in there? Do you need help?”

There was no response.

Grimacing, David tried to cover his nose with his arm as he ran out the front door of the apartment, both to get some fresh air, and to see if he could peek into the window of the locked room that faced the staircase. He took a moment to breath in a lungful of clean air, and then turned toward the window that he passed every time he entered or exited the apartment. As usual, the blinds were drawn and louvered tightly so that it was impossible to see inside. David bent down and pressed his face close to the glass, hoping to see something through the tiny holes in the slats that the strings ran through.

“What are you doing, taking up a new hobby?” A voice called out from below him.

David jumped in the air and looked down to again find Becky surprising him from behind. She had one foot of the stairs and was looking up at him in confusion. She was wearing a jean jacket over a white turtle neck which clung tightly to her body. A pair of square toed boots poked out from her jeans. As per usual, she wasn’t wearing a mask, so it was easy to see the question reflected on her face.

“I-I thought I heard something in there,” David explained, pointing toward the window. “I thought that maybe it was my old room mate, but no one answered when I knocked, so I was trying to see if I could see whether he was in there and needed help or something.”

“Huh,” Becky said. She climbed the stairs with a determined frown. 

“Watch out for the smell,” David said as she passed him and entered the apartment.

“What smell?” She called from inside.

David frowned and followed after her. The horrible odor from before had disappeared without a trace. “It smelled like something had died in here,” he said in confusion.

Becky took a deep, obvious whiff, and said, “I don’t smell anything out of the normal, and my nose is like a thousand times more sensitive than yours. You should try the moisturizing Irish Spring rather than the regular some time, by the way. I hear it’s better for your skin.”

Pulling his shirt away from his chest, David bent down and surreptitiously sniffed himself, but didn’t smell anything strange. Becky meanwhile walked over to the door leading to the downstairs bedroom. David opened his mouth to tell her it was locked, when she turned the knob and opened the door. A bit taken aback, David followed her into the other room.

“Hello? Anyone home?” Becky called out rhetorically. The room was painfully empty, the carpet still showing the marks left by a shampoo machine. Becky turned to David with a cocky smile. “Looks like no one’s home.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” David replied evenly.

They did their due diligence and checked the short hallway, the closets, and the attached bathroom, but they were all empty and sterile. There was no sign that anyone had been in there for weeks, or maybe months. Nothing that would explain the sounds David had heard.

Leaving the empty rooms behind, they returned to the kitchen, David feeling equal parts foolish and confused. What was happening to him? Was it all just in his head?

Becky’s mocking smile fell as she saw the state David was in. “You okay? I was thinking about hanging out for a bit, maybe watch another movie or something, but if you’re not feeling up to it ...”

She let the sentiment hang, and David shook his head, dismissing his unease to focus on what was important. “No. No, it’s cool. Please stay. I was probably just been imagining things. Maybe I’ve been self-medicating a bit too much.”

With a laugh, Becky said, “Then maybe I should finish this before you get a chance to.” She picked up the partially filled bottle of vodka and swished it back and forth.

“Be my guest, if you can stomach the cheap stuff.” David walked over and switched from the game console to the list of available streaming services.

Becky dumped the remaining vodka into a nearby cup and sauntered over to plop down on the couch. David handed her the remote, and she quickly started delving through horror movies. With one final distrustful glance at the nearby closed door, David settled down on his end of the couch and in no time at all he and Becky were laughing as a seemingly immortal killer made his way through all the passengers on a train, one machete swing at a time. Once more, as time passed, the sag in the couch caused him and Becky to find themselves pressed against each other. Leaning against Becky’s warm, reassuring bulk, it was easy for David to push the strange things he’d been seeing and hearing from his mind.

After the movie was over, David’s stomach growled, and he realized he hadn’t had anything to eat, since that morning’s proto-omelet. “Are you hungry?” He asked, glancing up at Becky.

She laughed. “It wasn’t me making that sound, but sure, I can eat. Are you planning on ordering out again?”

“Nah, I figured I’d treat you to a home cooked meal. Or at least more of a home cooked meal than something off grubhub. Do you like pasta?”

Becky shrugged. “Sure.” The movement jostled David and gave him the impetus to stand up.

“Cool. Then you just sit here and I’ll go work my culinary magic.”

Said magic was more akin to sleight of hand due to David’s kitchen skills being middling to say the least. That said, he could boil water with the best of them, and Alfredo sauce came in jars these days. Combined with vegetables that could be steamed in the microwave, and even David could throw together a heaping helping of pasta in only a few minutes.

He doubled Becky’s portion compared to his own and carried the plates over to the couch. They dined while watching the hijinks of the frat boys in Dude Bro Party Massacre III and while the meal didn’t taste terrible to David, Becky actually praised it, which gave David a warm feeling of pride.

After the movie, Becky joined David in the kitchen and they cleaned up together, giggling for no reason in particular when their hands accidentally touched from time to time while doing the dishes. David was too occupied with the tasks before him, and with Becky’s antics, to look out the tiny kitchen window. At least that’s what he told himself whenever he found his eyes beginning to stray in its direction and he had to purposefully look away. Storing the left over Alfredo next to the mystery pot in the fridge, an ominous, yet innocuous appearing relic that not even Becky had been able to muster up enough courage to open, David closed the refrigerator's door and turned to look over the rest of the kitchen. The dishes were being sanitized in the dish washer, the counters and stove were wiped down, the floor was mopped. All in all, the kitchen looked as good, if not better than when he’d moved in.

“Thanks for the help, Becky,” he said as he lightly knocked his red solo cup with hers. They were out of vodka, so they’d begun making Cuban screwdrivers and where nearly halfway through the rum.

“You’re welcome. It was a small price to pay for enjoying the evening with such excellent company.” Becky leaned closer to David, causing him to unconsciously back up. At least it was unconscious until his back hit an obstruction and he realized that he was stuck in a corner between the counter and a wall.

David laughed a bit nervously. “That should be my line. It’s nice to have company like you over. Don’t get me wrong, I love it when my friends hang out, but usually Dan’s too busy trying to 100% a game, and when Stan comes over, it’s usually to couch surf for a few months.”

Becky leaned back on the counter, causing her chest to take center stage and David wondered just how much was her breasts, and how much was fur. “That’s good. I’m glad that you enjoy my company, David.”

Still surreptitiously staring at her chest, perhaps due to the alcohol, David blurted out something he’d been wondering about. “By the way, what kind of anthro are you exactly? That is, if it’s not too personal a question.”

Becky chuckled before replying, “Tibetan mastiff. Though my family emigrated several generations back, so really all that I have left in the way of heritage is this thick coat. Sometimes it’s a real pain to deal with. I’m pretty sure that I’ve put my salon’s owner’s kids through college, twice. During winter though, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. How about you?”

Confused, David answered, “I’m human?”

With another chuckle, Becky said, “I know. But where does your family come from?”

David thought for a moment before admitting, “I’m not sure. I suppose I’m just your average Joe. Nothing special.”

Becky finished her drink. “You’re not very introspective are you, David?”

“I suppose not.”

She set down her cup with a hint of finality. “In fact, you strike me as something of an impulsive boy. A bit short sighted, not concerned all that much with the future, unable or unwilling to reflect on your mistakes and learn anything from the past. I imagine that’s led you to a few broken bones and other accidents over the years.”

Not entirely appreciating what Becky was driving at, David was honest enough with himself to admit, “Yeah, I suppose that’s one way to look at it.”

Becky’s tongue darted across her lips. “It seems to me like you’re the type of boy who needs someone to look after them. Otherwise, who knows what kind of trouble you might find yourself in.” Her eyes flicked down to David’s wrapped hand for a few moments before she looked him in the eye again, with a hint of smug amusement in her expression.

Defensively, David crossed his arms, hiding his hand from view. “I’ve done okay so far by myself.”

With affectionate exasperation, Becky smirked and rolled her eyes, but didn’t say anything. She softly contemplated David for a minute as she leaned heavily against the counter. “I’m sorry, David,” she said, sounding sincerely apologetic. “I think maybe I’ve had too much to drink tonight, and said a bit too much. I think I should call it a night and go before I ...” her smile grew wider, hungrier. “Well, before I lose my head any further. Please don’t hold what I said tonight against me tomorrow. It’s just the alcohol talking. You know how it is, I’m sure.”

David shrugged, letting the tension he hadn’t been aware of leave his shoulders. “Yeah, I guess so.”

He flinched a bit when Becky leaned forward and rested a hand on his cheek, trailing a finger along his cheekbone before lightly poking his nose. “Good boy. Sleep tight, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Discombobulated by Becky’s forwardness, David froze up and wasn’t able to respond in time before she’d collected her things and had left his apartment, giving him a wink on her way out the door. His mind was a bit off kilter due to the rum, and he wasn’t sure what to make of what had just happened. What Becky said had been a bit upsetting. Moreso because she wasn’t entirely wrong, but her touch had been warm and loving. Deciding that he’d figure out his conflicting feelings in the morning when he was less intoxicated and had a better perspective on things, David went around turning off lights, then climbed the stairs to his room and after undressing, fell into bed.

Sometime later, in the depths of the night, David woke up with an intense need to pee. Unfortunately it was the time of year when the outdoor temperatures fluctuated between summer heat one day and winter cold the next. That night, it was on the winter side of things. David shivered as the cold air hit his skin when he slipped out of the protection of his blankets. His breath came out in silvery clouds suspended in the shafts of moonlight coming through the skylights. He wasn’t sure what time it was, but judging by the absolute silence of the world, it had to be late.

On quickly cooling feet he dashed to the bathroom and utilized echolocation to determine the approximate location of the toilet bowl. Finishing his business, he flushed the toilet and even though he couldn’t see much in the darkness, reflexively checked himself in the mirror. Reflected in the glass, death stared down at him.

There shouldn’t have been much light to see by, but David could make out every detail of the figure crouching down to peer in at him through the bathroom door. It was dressed in a shapeless ragged cloak or something, hiding its lanky body, or what it used as a body. It had no face, just a gleaming white bovine skull with empty black eye sockets which felt as if they were staring into David’s very soul. Sprouting from the skull, almost like a crown, or a halo, were a pair of antlers caped with a forest of needle-like points dyed black.

David stood stock still, staring at the thing in the mirror for several long seconds. He didn’t even dare to breathe as he watched the equally still creature with complete and undivided attention. The night was still, silent, and cold as David watched the monster watching him.

The chill of the bathroom’s cold tiles broke David’s stupor. Logically, there was only one way in or out of the room. It didn’t matter whether he decided on flight or fight. Either way, David was going to have to go through whatever it was. All the muscles in David’s body were beginning to ache from remaining tensed for so long. One of his hands rested on the bathroom’s counter and he used it as a spring, pushing off to whirl himself around to face this faceless thing. As he spun he slammed into the wall his bed rested against.

Flailing in his cocoon of sheets, David belatedly realized it was morning and what he’d just seen had been a dream. A nightmare. His racing heart began to slow down as he surveyed his sun drenched room. In the distance he could hear birds chirping and the muted sound of traffic passing by. He sighed and closed his eyes in relief. It had been a very vivid dream. So much so that he took a second to verify that his bed was still dry. Finding nothing amiss, David relaxed for a few minutes in the warmth of his blankets before rousing himself to put his dream behind him and get the day started. But as he went to climb out of bed, David started back, clutching his blankets to him as his back slammed into the wall again.

On the floor around his bed, and along the wall he was leaned against, was a large circle made of twigs woven together like some sort of wreath. Inside that was another ring made out of a white substance that looked like salt.

David stared wide-eyed at the two circles for a minute or two, and then wildly searched the room with his eyes, looking for, hoping for someone to jump out and yell ‘surprise!’ but no one did. The birds continued to chirp, the cars continued to pass by. It was another ordinary morning with just this one little thing out of place.


	3. Chapter 3

It took David nearly half an hour to work up the courage to get out of bed and step over the lines of wood and salt. The main reason why he screwed up his courage to move was the fact that his phone was sitting on his desk, plugged into its charger. Not wanting to deal with any closet related bullshit after everything else, David grabbed the phone and the clothes he’d been wearing yesterday that he’d left on the floor. He raced downstairs as he dressed, almost falling and cracking his head open on the spiral staircase.

He burst out of his apartment and leapt down the stairs, only slowing to a stop once he reached the parking lot. Like he was in the middle of a fire drill or something and he’d be safe once he was a certain distance from the building.

The asphalt was warm from the sun and felt pleasant on his bare feet as he paced back and forth. First he tried to call Dan, but after a couple of rings, the call went to an automated voice which told him that Dan hadn’t set up his voicemail yet. Knowing Dan, he was probably on day three or four of a week long delve into a visual novel, trying to see every possible ending at least once. As for Stanley, he’d never really been one for cellphones, relying on borrowing someone else’s when he needed to make a call. David liked his friends, but they weren’t the most reliable people. Though if he were being honest, the same could be said of him. 

His list of friends exhausted, David turned to Google, but got back a list of links to craft projects on instagram and Wiccan facebook groups. Not even the second page of results returned anything helpful. Beginning to run out of options, David posted about what he’d experienced to a Mongolian basket weaving forum dedicated to the paranormal, but was dismissed as being a larping faggot.

By the time he’d given up hope for receiving any meaningful help, nearly half an hour had gone by without anything untoward happening. Mustering up his courage, David slunk back into his apartment long enough to find his shoes, wallet, and other bare necessities that he could retrieve without having to climb all the way back to his bedroom. Throwing on a bandanna for a mask, David fled the apartment again and started power walking toward campus. He didn’t have time to wait for the bus, he was on a mission to visit the repository of last resort for knowledge, the library.

The university’s library had been revamped in the ‘70’s or ‘80’s and had a certain Brutalist charm to it. Though it was six stories tall it somehow managed to appear both squat and imposing at the same time. David hadn’t visited the building since he’d been a fresh faced freshman anxious to take his academic career seriously by spending at least two hours studying for every hour of instruction. Those had been simpler times.

His head cooled and body warmed by the exercise of walking so far, upon entering the library, David asked a conveniently placed librarian for directions and found himself directed to one of the quiet floors. He passed shelf after shelf of books, quickly loosing sight of the tall, narrow windows that lined the perimeter of the building. Deep in the bowls of the library, across from, and overshadowed by, the complete works of Trotsky was the school’s selection of books dedicated to the occult.

Not entirely sure what it was he was looking for, David picked a few books at random and took them to a nearby table where he began to skim through their contents in search of dead antlered cows, creepy holiday wreaths, and anti-slug barriers.

He’d just opened a leather bound book on ancient Sumerian funeral rites, when a somewhat familiar monotone voice asked, “Oh, hey. Interested in the occult?”

David looked up from the book to find the goth zebra from the health clinic standing on the other side of the desk. She was wearing a pair of black jeans with horizontal tears running up almost their entire length, and a form fitting black tee-shirt with a tombstone situated under her breasts adorned with the name Bela Lugosi. Around her neck was a necklace with a silver ankh dangling from it, matching the silver rings she wore on her fingers and in her ears. Above her pink mask with the symbols >w<, her red contacts were set off by a thick layer of black mascara. There was white stubble in between the black stripes in her mane.

“Oh, hey …” David said awkwardly.

“Tanya,” She replied, “And you’re ...”

“David,” he said with a nod hello.

Tanya’s eyes danced in amusement. “Oh yeah, danger prone Dave. How could I forget? You were the first person I ever had to report to protective services.”

David’s eyebrows shot up. “Wait, what?”

Pulling out a chair, Tanya settled down across the table from David. “Yeah, apparently it’s a law where if a care provider sees signs of obvious abuse, or in your case, if a patient hits a certain threshold of injuries of a severe enough nature, we have to report them to protective services. I’m told that it’s not a totally uncommon thing, so I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you. Just a government watch list out there somewhere your name’s now on.”

“Great, another one,” David said with a sigh.

Tanya nodded toward the book that David was reading. “So, you interested in the occult?”

David shrugged. “Kind of, I guess. I’m doing some research, though I’m not even entirely sure what it is I’m looking for.”

Leaning over the table, causing David’s eyes to dart momentarily toward her shirt’s neckline, Tanya said conspiratorially, “Well, it might come as a surprise to you, but I’m something of an occult aficionado, some might even say expert. Last year I even tried to get a club started to research the strange and paranormal, but it got shut down after it turned out most of the other members were necrophiliacs who were just interested in breaking into the morgue. Anyway, what is it you’re looking into?”

David exhaled slowly, sizing Tanya up and wondering just how open minded she was. Deciding it was worth a shot, he asked, “Well, what do you know about weird things happening in dreams, and then … kind of outside of dreams?”

One of Tanya’s eyebrows shot up questioningly. “What do you mean?”

Briefly thinking over over what he’d seen and heard, David wasn’t entirely sure what had been real and what had been his overactive imagination. Hesitantly he began with “Well ...” and proceeded to tell her about how things had been feeling off lately, about the skull creature he’d seen in his nightmare, and about waking up surrounded by twigs and salt someone had placed while he’d slept. Tanya listened through the whole story with only a few twitches of her ears betraying that she was paying attention. Apprehensive that she’d dismiss him as paranoid, or high, or both, David summed up, “So I wasn’t able to find much online. I came here to see if they had anything, but didn’t see any books on woodworking with witches or strangely tall voyeuristic skeletons yet. Does … does any of that ring a bell, maybe? Do you think there’s something I can do to just make all this go away?”

Tanya drew in a long, slow breath and then rested both her elbows on the table and leaned far enough across it to encroach on David’s airspace. “This is so exciting!” She squealed, a far cry from her earlier monotone. “This is the first supernatural event I’ve seen in real life. Well, you’ve seen. But I’ve seen you, so that sort of counts, right? Anyway, tell me everything you can, every little detail. I have so many questions. First of all, what kind of wood did they use for the circle?”

David, a bit stunned by Tanya’s intensity, cut his eyes away for a moment before gazing at her incredulously. “What kind of wood? I don’t know. I mean, I didn’t exactly hang around to do an in depth analysis in the midst of me getting the fuck out of there.”

With a sigh, Tanya deflated a bit and sat back down in her chair. “Well, it would be helpful to know. Obviously the circle of salt was for protection, so the circle of wood probably was too. If we knew what it was made of, then we’d have a better idea of what it was meant to protect you from, or who made it in the first place since some people, or things, prefer to work with certain materials.”

“Well, I’m not much of a betting man, but if I were going to put money down, I’d say they were trying to protect me from the creepy skull thing. I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t just a normal nightmare because I don’t think my imagination is anywhere near good enough to come up with something like that, with that much detail.”

Tanya leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms as she contemplated the ceiling and hummed to herself. “Sometimes spirits, or other things, disguise themselves and fool our senses in order to hide their true nature. It takes a lot less energy to show up in a dream than it does to fully manifest in the physical realm, so maybe this thing was trying to dress up to scare you. At least I hope that’s the case. From what you described … well, if it’s what it sounds like, then that’s bad news for you, because they’re not very nice. Then again, I’m not a paranormal expert, so I can’t tell you what it was with absolute certainty. Lucky for you, I know someone who is an expert, and who has a library full of every ghost story, campfire tale, and folklore you can think of.” She pulled out her phone and checked the time. With a wince she said, “I really want to go check out your apartment and see the scene of the crime with my own eyes, but I have a shift starting in fifteen minutes, and while Dr. Richardson is a sweet lady, she can’t stand people not showing up when they’re scheduled. You should see how pissed she gets over no show appointments.” Tanya unlocked her phone and looked expectantly toward David. “Here, let’s exchange contact info. It’d be awesome if you could send me a photo of those circles, and I’ll get in contact with my friend and get her checking into what it is you might have seen.”

“Sure!” David said rather eagerly, and fumbled his phone out of his pocket. After navigating a few unfamiliar menus, he had Tanya’s number safely stored in his rather abridged contact list.

Putting his phone away, David asked, “So, in the meantime, is there something I can do, like a ritual, or a charm or, I don’t know, some candles I could light or something? You know, to try and calm this thing down and maybe get it to leave?”

Tanya sucked in air through her teeth. “I wouldn’t recommend doing anything just yet. Don’t get me wrong, there are definitely ceremonies that we could do, but the one to use depends on what we’re dealing with. This isn’t Ghostbusters, with a one solution to every ghost kind of thing. If we do the wrong ritual, instead of getting whatever it is to leave, it’ll just piss it off. From what you said, it seems like things might be intensifying already, but you might be able to calm it down by refusing to acknowledge its existence. Or, that could cause it to act out even more. Really this isn’t an exact science. But if I were you, while we’re still figuring things out, I’d probably think about finding someplace else to sleep.” Glancing at her phone again, she stood up from her seat.

“Talk to you in a bit,” she said as she gave him a wave and started walking away. She’d made it a few steps when she paused and rushed back in order to pick up one of the books David had stacked on the table. “Almost forgot this.” As she rushed away, David took the opportunity to admire the way digitigrade legs made her shapely rear pop, enhanced by the sway of her tail, dyed completely black, or course.

After Tanya had disappeared, David pushed himself up from the table with a weary sigh. Time, distance, and his own inertia laden nature had lessened the morning’s terror. What he’d woken up to was still weird, and there was no way David would be sleeping in that bed again, but maybe there was another explanation for what he’d seen. Other than there being a boogeyman, or boogeymen in his house. Maybe it had been Dan, or even Becky, playing a joke on him. Maybe it was the result of some sort of natural phenomena from leaving the skylight open. Not that David was certain the skylight could even be opened. But that wasn’t the point. The world was a strange place, and maybe there was some other, non-paranomal explanation for his experiences.

Anyway, he needed to go back and at least get his stuff if nothing else.

Leaving the books he’d pulled out on the desk for some hapless librarian to reshelve, David opted to head to the nearest bus stop rather than walking all the way home. As he waited on the sidewalk under the tiny bus sign, he unlocked his phone and sent a text message to Dan. “Hey man, you alive?”

Not expecting to receive a reply anytime soon, David was surprised when a few minutes later, after the bus had arrived and he’d found a socially distant acceptable seat to slide into, his phone vibrated. “Sup?”

Thinking about how best to sum up everything he’d been going through over the past couple of days, David sent, “Creepy stuff happening in nowhere.”

“wat kind of stuff? Visiting parents rnow”

David winced. He knew how acrimonious Dan’s relationship with his family was. Something major must have happened to get him to visit home. “Shit, sorry man. Is it okay if I crash at your place in case of emergency?”

“sure”

Assuming that his conversation with the normally taciturn Dan was at an end, David pocketed his phone and watched the scenery slowly moving past the bus’ window as he waited for his stop. The familiar tenement blocks coming into view, David descended from the bus under the unwatchful eyes of the shirtless guy and made the long, lonesome walk back to his apartment. As he passed through the empty parking lots and under the equally empty windows of vacant apartments, he noticed a motorcycle parked in one of the spots in front of the stairs leading up to his home.

It was a naked bike, which, for a beginner such as David, meant he had no idea what it was, since he relied on the fairings to inform him the exact model. A Kawasaki logo on what remained did clue him into the manufacturer at least. Admiring the bike long enough to notice some road rash along one of the handlebars and a foot peg, along with a slight dent in the tank, David mounted the steps to his apartment.

As usual, the front door was unlocked. Not as usual, Becky was sitting on the crappy couch, watching a movie or something.

“Welcome home, David,” she said joyfully, her ears perking up and tail thumping against the couch cushions with a steady tempo.

Feeling slightly weirded out at her unexpected presence, David pulled his mask off with one hand and limply lifted the other in greeting. “Uh, hey.” He and his friends had something of a standing open door policy, but Becky was the first female David could recall ever inviting herself into his domicile. “So uh, not to sound rude, but what brings you here?”

Becky’s ears fell and she adopted a somewhat contrite expression. “Is it not okay? I came to see you and noticed the front door was unlocked, so I let myself in, in case you were home and just didn’t hear me. I looked around and noticed that there was a bit of a mess. I hope you aren’t upset, but I cleaned it up for you.” She laughed nervously. “It’s kind of a compulsion or something, I guess. Anyway, I sat down for a little break, and that’s when you came back.”

“Oh. That’s cool, I guess,” David said, his easy-going, or more accurately lazy, nature coming to the fore. “Wait a second, mess?” Realization struck him and he rushed up to his room. Opening the door he found it spic and span, cleaner than it had ever been since he’d moved in. Even the bed was made with fresh sheets, which was a bit odd since he only owned one set of sheets. Of course there was no sign of any questioningly paranormal circles of possible protection.

Gobsmacked, David leaned heavily against the door frame for a few seconds, staring at the open closet door across from him absently. Slowly he turned and plodded back down the stairs. 

Becky had stood up from the couch, her hands clasped in front of her. “Sorry if I overstepped,” she said with worry in her voice.

“No, it’s fine,” David said with a dismissive wave. “Actually, I should probably be thanking you. Usually guys have to pay for pretty women to come clean their homes for them.” He offered her a wane smile as he walked over to the fridge to make himself a screwdriver. Finding that he was out of alcohol, he settled for a glass of orange juice instead. Frowning at the off taste, David asked, “By the way, when you were cleaning up, did you … did you see anything weird up there? Like a bunch of sticks, or salt, or … something, anything?”

Becky had walked over to stand near the transition between carpet and linoleum that demarcated the kitchen area. She raised a finger to her chin and tilted her head in thought. “No … I don’t think I saw anything like that. Just some dirty clothes, some garbage that hadn’t quite made it into the trash can, and some of your school work left in a pile. One of these days I need to teach you how a laundry hamper works.”

David sighed and slumped against the counter. What the hell? Was all of this in his head? Had that crash scrambled his brain somehow? Dumping out the remaining orange juice in his cup, the pulled his phone out of his pocket and sent a text to Tanya. “Sry, no pics of the crop circles. Friend cleaned my room.”

Almost immediately Tanya replied with a disappointed dugong emoji, and then, “That sux. Do u mind sending me as many details u can remember? Specvific features can’tp research. *can help”

Staring at his phone, there wasn’t much David could think of adding to his description he’d already given her. Skull, horns, bone numbing chill of sheer terror.

“Who are you talking to, David?” Becky asked, leaning toward him on the counter.

David glanced at her before tilting the phone a bit further away from her sight. “A friend.” He typed out what he could remember about the things he’d seen and sent it to Tanya. A moment later he received a thumbs up emoji in reply. Looking up to find Becky giving his phone a hard stare, her eyes softening when she looked up to meet his gaze, David asked, “Oh yeah, is that bike outside yours?”

“Yeah, I just got it. Nice isn’t it?”

“Oh yeah, it looks pretty sweet. My friend Dan has a Kawasaki too, a Ninja. He loves that bike more than anything else in the world. I’ve got, well had, a Katana, but it’s been in the shop since my accident and I’m still waiting to hear back from my insurance whether they’re going to fix it or total it. I already miss riding, though I suppose with my hand being the way it is, it’ll still be a while till I can work the clutch. So, is your bike new?”

Becky’s eyes narrowed mirthfully. “It’s preowned. In fact, I Just picked it up recently for a killer deal.”

David nodded. “I noticed there were a few scratches on it that looks like it was dropped. I bet that helped with negotiating the price.”

“It didn’t hurt things, I’ll say that.” She lightly slapped the counter. “You said you missed riding, right? How about we go for a ride sometime. I’ve got something that just came up that I need to take care of later this afternoon, but other than that, I’m free most of the time.”

“That sounds fun,” David said, straightening himself. Catching sight of the now bare spot he usually kept his liquor, he proposed, “Actually, if you’re up for it, how about going now? I’m out of booze, so we could go get lunch and then hit the liquor store.”

Becky nodded slowly, thoughtfully. “Lunch sounds nice, but do you think maybe we could skip the liquor store? I’ve noticed how much you’ve been drinking, David, and I’m a bit concerned.”

With a roll of his eyes, David replied, “I’m in college, Becky. Drinking is like sixty percent of what you do in school. I know guys on campus who drink ten times as much as I do and manage to pass their classes. Besides, right now my drinking is medicinal. You know, to help with the pain. It’s better than getting addicted to opioids, right?”

Becky walked around the counter, staring down at him with a hint of sternness. “And what happens when you medicinally blow up your liver?” She poked him just below his chest, hard. Wincing, David jumped back a few inches and pressed his hand against the wound. “It doesn’t matter what other idiots are doing, I’m worried about you, David. I’m not saying that you need to give it up entirely, but how about trying to drink a little less. Instead of today, let’s go to the store tomorrow, and instead of buying a gallon, how about a smaller bottle?”

Still clutching his sore abdomen, David could tell from her tone of voice that Becky was sincerely concerned about his health, which made him feel a bit guilty. Grudgingly he acquiesced. “Okay. I’ll try to cut back.”

A smile bloomed on Becky’s face and her tail knocked loudly against the kitchen cabinet doors. “Thank you,” she said as she stepped forward and pulled him into a surprise hug. Unfortunately she released him well before his brain could catch up to what was happening and exult in the soft, squishy feeling engulfing his front. “Now then, are you still up for lunch?”

Feeling rather discombobulated, David said, “Sure.”

Becky clapped. “Great! Let’s get our gear on and go!”

She left him in his daze and turned off the TV before heading outside. David shook his head a bit to clear it, and then went up to his room. He pulled his riding gear out of the closet and closed the door after him. It was the same gear he’d been wearing when he’d crashed. He threw on the jacket, and wandered downstairs and out to the parking lot. Becky frowned when she saw the scratched helmet in his hands, still sporting a few clumps of grass in some of the vents.

“You know you’re supposed to throw those away and get a new one once it’s hit the ground, right?”

David shrugged. “I’ll get a new one next time. I mean, as long as I don’t hit the same spot again, it should be fine. Just don’t crash, and we should be good.”

Becky scoffed and rolled her eyes, but she mounted the bike and lifted the kickstand before standing up, holding the bike steady for David to climb on behind her, careful not to pinch her tail. Resting on the passenger pegs, he gingerly placed his hands just above her hips. As she settled back down on the seat, she reached down and pulled his hands forward, placing them somewhere around her belly button, plastering his front against her back. She patted his now clasped hands, then started the bike and threw it into first. Without the slightest jolt, she smoothly navigated through the apartment complex’s parking lots and out onto the road.

Squeezed so tightly against her, David couldn’t help noticing that underneath her layer of soft fur, Becky was solidly muscled. She felt like an iron bar wrapped in velvet. The revelation was a bit surprising, and David wondered what her routine was like. He’d tried weight lifting himself a couple of years before, but hadn’t been able to maintain a schedule and had slowly allowed his visits to the gym to become less and less frequent.

There wasn’t much traffic on the streets of the city for them to weave through, so it only took a few minutes for them to arrive at their destination, a small sushi restaurant close to campus that David hadn’t been to in a few months due to insufficient funds. They took their helmets off and left them on the bike as they donned their face masks, only to take them off again a matter of minutes later once they’d entered the restaurant and had been seated. 

Other than theirs, there were only a few other occupied tables. Thanks to so few patrons, it didn’t take long for their food to be prepared once they’d put their order in. Lunch passed by quickly and peacefully as David and Becky enjoyed discussing their favorite horror movies over a selection of not so fresh fish. There was a moment of consternation though when it came time to settle the bill. Both of them wanted to pay for the meal, but they eventually had to settle for each paying half, which, while a blow to David’s finances, assuaged his chivalrous spirit since Becky had devoured the lion’s share of the meal.

The ride home was uneventful, though David did nearly fall off the back of the bike when they accelerated from a stoplight. He found himself clutching Becky even tighter as she continued to quickly row through the gears, gaily laughing in the wind. Her gradual coasting to a stop in front of their apartment building was much more subdued. She didn’t kill the motor, but leaned forward, and David hopped off the bike. They gave each other a wave before Becky once again roared off on whatever errands she needed to run.

Watching her ride away, David walked up to his apartment, and this time didn’t find anyone unexpectedly visiting. Settling on the couch, pleasantly full from lunch, he lazily checked his phone, but he hadn’t received any messages. He browsed the internet for a bit but there wasn’t much to interest him their either, so he turned on his console and loaded the latest RPG that he’d been playing off and on. He could only vaguely remember the story, but it didn’t matter. He just needed to go to the quest markers on the minimap, kill some things, turn in the quest, and then move on to the next. From time to time a rhythmic tapping came from the wall behind him, but it sounded like the heating system cycling, gearing up for the cold months ahead, so he just ignored it.

The afternoon slipped away as David’s avatar hacked and slashed her way through a fantasy world. He’d stopped playing only occasionally to massage his thumb and pop a few pain pills. Evening had begun to fall and the apartment had grown dusky by the time David discerned the sound of a motor in the distance. He saved his game as he heard someone bounding up the stairs. Becky burst into the room and pulled down her black mask to reveal a bright smile. “Hey, David! Up for another movie night? I brought dinner.” She brandished a plastic bag dangling from her fist.

“Sure, sounds good to me,” David said, quitting his game and standing up to follow her into the kitchen, flipping on lights as they went.

“Did you have a good day?” Becky asked as she set the bag on the counter and began unloading tin and plastic containers from a nearby Indian restaurant.

David shrugged as he opened up a cupboard to retrieve some plates. “Same old, really. A bit of studying, a break here and there, you know, the usual collegiate day. How about you?”

Becky smiled in his direction. “Oh yeah, my day was great. I was able to wrap everything up I needed to, and … well, to be honest, I’ve been feeling a bit anxious lately, but today I figured out why. I realized that I was afraid of losing something that’s important to me. I was trying to figure out how to overcome my anxiety, when I realized, I just needed to make sure that I tied – secured that important thing closer to me, so no one else can take it.” 

Sizing her up, David said, “I don’t think you really need to worry to much about anyone trying to take something from you without you wanting them to, Becky. I know I wouldn’t want to piss you off if I could help it.”

Becky flashed him a smile and said, “Well, better safe than sorry.” She opened the many food containers and began piling two plates high with a profusion of food that made David’s still somewhat full stomach feel a bit queasy. She passed him the plates and he carried them to the couch while she puttered around the kitchen and poured them drinks. 

David began browsing movies they hadn’t watched yet, and accepted the cup she offered him when she settled down next to him on the couch. Once again, it was alcohol free orange juice, which seemed like an odd pairing with the chicken tikka masala, but it probably was all he had left to drink in the house. Maybe it was the spices from the meal, but as the evening wore on, the juice tasted even more off than he remembered.

David pecked at his food, not feeling particularly hungry. The movie he’d chosen droned on, but at some point he’d lost track of the plot. He spent some time trying to figure out what was going on, but felt strangely drowsy, and unmotivated to really pay attention to what was happening on screen. It was a queer drowsiness that was settling over him. He found himself leaning heavily against Becky, his head on her shoulder since he lacked the strength to hold it up himself. Every time he blinked, it felt as if the movie had jumped to a new scene, it might have even been a different movie all together. It didn’t matter though because the images were beginning to fall apart into colorful noise.

At some point he’d fallen over. He was staring at the ceiling. Or maybe it was the wall, with shadows cast on it. Maybe it was Plato’s cave. What if the philosophers had never made it outside the cave? What if they’d just found a new wall with higher def shadows? There was a white face staring at him from a dark corner of the ceiling/wall, and David felt that was an important piece of information that he should take particular note of. 

Becky was over him now, looking down at him with kind, gentle eyes. She looked like she’d said something, but David couldn’t hear her. He could hear everything, and it all was muddled together into a single long, uninterrupted drone. Like the roar of the solar wind beating against his head, unceasing for as long as the sun lived. He would die before the sun. That meant that for him, the sound would last forever.

His body tingled and felt wire thin. As if only his face, arms, legs, and spine were left. Like he wasn’t David anymore, but a stick figure that represented David, left behind on a white board somewhere, facing a ceiling/wall full of shadows.

Dimly and gradually he realized he felt pressure around his groin. He was a stick figure with a penis. It was wet, then cold, and then wet and warm, and tight. David thought that he should look down to see if he was still there, but he’d forgotten how. All he could do was lie there, staring at the ceiling/wall.

Becky was over him again. She didn’t look kind and gentle anymore. She was smiling, but it was a mean smile. It was a hungry smile. It was a nasty smile. David blinked, maybe. His penis was still caught in something tight and wet, but it wasn’t Becky over him anymore, it was someone else. She had long, thick, filthy black hair, ash white fur, grey in places, and brilliant red eyes. She might have been smiling like a maniac, or maybe she just didn’t have any lips. She leaned down and breathed a fetid, rotting breath into David’s face. He tried to push her away with his stick figure arms, or thought he tried, but she caught his hands.

No, it was Becky who had taken his hands in hers, playing with them like an adult plays with a baby reaching for them. Her face was pressed close to David’s, her teeth locked in a rigor mortis grimace. Some saliva fell from her clenched teeth and landed on David’s cheek, leaving a wet, cooling trail as it slid down the side of his face.

Groggily, David woke up.

His head was killing him and he was suffering from a wicked case of cotton mouth. Maybe Becky had been right about laying off the alcohol. It took him a minute to realize that he’d fallen asleep on the couch at some point, which would explain why he had a kink in his back. Vaguely he remembered fragments of a nightmare he’d had, but did his best to encourage them to make the journey to the land of forgotten dreams. He couldn’t really recall what had happened the previous night, but Becky must have brought some booze over, and he’d over indulged.

Someone, probably Becky, had covered him with a blanket from his bed. David pushed it aside to roll out of bed, well, off the couch, and as he did so, he felt a cold, slimy shift in his boxers and shamefully realized that he’d had a ‘nocturnal emission.’ He hadn’t had one of those since sophomore year in high school when he sat behind Sarah McKenzie in World History, and had a front row seat to her whale tail. Tuesdays had always been his favorite. That was black lace day. Anyway, he needed to clean himself up.

Awkwardly waddling up the stairs to his room, David retrieved a change of clothes from his open closet, closing the door behind him. Stepping into the bathroom, he started the shower to warm it up and disrobed. The wet patch around his crotch was larger than he remembered it being back in high school. Maybe he’d been backed up. Shrugging, David tossed his dirty clothes in a bunch near the door and wrapping a plastic bag over his bandaged hand, stepped into the warm spray of the shower.

The heat helped sooth the aches and pains wracking his body. The shoulder he’d sprained in the accident was particularly sore that morning. He must have slept on it wrong. Swallowing some of the falling tap water to help assuage his thirst, David got to washing. He spent longer in the shower than normal, relaxing in the heat and the steam pounding against his body, until the water began to turn tepid. Reluctantly, he finished up and closed the water tap and blindly grabbed the towel he kept nearby. It was one of the ones he’d missed in the great cleaning, so it had stiffened in the shape of the hook it normally hung from.

After toweling off, David threw on his clothes, pausing between applying his deodorant and putting on his shirt, when he noticed that he needed to clean his bathroom mirror. In the steam from the shower, he could see where he’d left hand prints on the glass. Though as he studied them, he realized that there were actually two sets of hand prints. Ones that belonged to him, and another set that belonged to a hand smaller than his. He wiped them all away hastily, with his damp towel. He probably hadn’t cleaned the mirror since he’d moved in, and they’d been left from the previous tenant. 

Stepping out of the bathroom, dressed in a fresh set of clothes which bore a great similarity to his previous outfit, David checked his phone and found several texts from Tanya. They started late last night, with her saying that she’d found something, then she apologized for texting so late, then she apologized for apologizing for some reason. Then followed a few texts that made David feel a case of second hand embarrassment. Anyway, ultimately the outcome was her asking him to text her to set up a time to go by her place to go over what she’d found.

Glancing up from the phone, David frowned at the closet door that was standing open. He cocked his head and narrowed his eyes in thought for a moment before shrugging and closing it. He crossed his room and was on the verge of stepping on the stairs leading down, when he heard the click of a door latch, and the soft whine of barely oiled hinges. He paused for a moment, but then muttered to himself, “Fuck this,” and continued downstairs without looking back.

Refocusing on the texts he’d received, he sent Tanya an apology for missing them when they’d originally come in. He told her that his schedule was wide open, so he could swing by her place whenever worked for her. Locking his phone and slipping it into his pocket, out of habit, David headed over to the kitchen. 

Feeling a bit peckish, he pulled a carton of eggs from the fridge, gagging a bit at the sight of the orange juice carton squatting in the middle of an otherwise barren shelf. Taking a few of the eggs, he began the laborious task of scrambling them, in doing so, he opened his catch all drawer for utensils, and frowned in confusion when he noticed that it was sparser than usual. 

His clutch of spatulas was still there, so he was set for his eggcelent adventure, but the area reserved for the couple of kitchen knives he owned was empty. After a quick search, he found that they weren't’ in the dishwasher, or in one of the other drawers. In fact, all of his knives and forks were missing. Only the spoons and some of the duller disposable sporks remained.

David felt equal parts perplexed and violated. He’d been the victim of theft before, but it had always been outside his home. A bike missing from the rack or a water bottle from the gym. When it was someone coming into his apartment and taking something, it felt much more … personal. For it to be his just his knives …

Forgetting breakfast, David searched through the apartment. Well, the living room and kitchen. He didn’t quite feel up to going back upstairs just yet. Both rooms had been cleaned, so it wasn’t easy to find anything, but after a vigorous search, he began to notice a common theme. The baseball bat stashed behind the chair next to the front door was missing. So too was the cheap katana he and Dan had bought at the mall. The various lighters were gone, while the mostly melted scented candles remained. Even the electrical outlets had been sealed with child protectors. It was as if someone had gone through his apartment trying to remove anything that could be potentially harmful.

Sighing through his nose in anger, David could think of one likely culprit. While it was true that he normally left his apartment unlocked, and any random passerby could come or go as they pleased, Becky was the only person David knew who he could envision passing up the game consoles and hi-def television to steal the ten dollar special silverware. He was angry enough to begin thinking about turning on his heel and marching downstairs to demand an explanation from his new friend, when his phone buzzed.

Glancing down at it, David found a text from Tanya, letting him know that any time that morning would work for her. Understanding himself well enough to know that if he gave the matter some time to sit in the back of his mind, his natural lethargy and passiveness would take care of his anger in a less combative manner than confronting anyone, David tersely replied to Tanya that he’d be right over, and asked for directions to her place.


	4. Chapter 4

It turned out Tanya lived in one of the older dorms on campus. While most of the residence halls had adopted apartment like floor plans with communal living rooms and individual bedrooms, Tanya’s was one of the last relics from the previous century that had been constructed like a fortress, with all the amenities of a barracks, or a prison. 

She’d told him to text her when he was close, but David found her outside the dorm’s security gate as he walked from the bus stop to the dorm’s main entrance.

“Hey, did you wait long?” David asked apologetically. If he’d known she’d be waiting for him, he would have warned her he was taking the slow bus from China.

“No, I just got here,” Tanya breezily replied. Unlike David, who had simplified his wardrobe into an almost uniform-like ensemble of a black tee shirt and blue jeans, Tanya obviously had a more diverse taste in clothing. Shew as wearing a modest black dress, which ended just above her backwards knees. It was trimmed with feline skull patterned ribbons, which paired well with the vertically striped black and white tights which led down to a pair of low heeled black pumps. Around her neck was a black choker, dangling from which was a silver ankh, which matched the pair she wore as ear rings. Her facemask had a printing of an open shark mouth. “My room mate should be in class right now, so we shouldn’t be interrupted for the next couple of hours,” Tanya said as she turned and beckoned David to follow after her. “I’ve found that it can be difficult to have conversations around non-believers. Especially when they refer to the occult as ‘creepy emo crap.’”

David followed Tanya through the heavy security door propped open by a cinder block. Probably the same one that had been used to bash the locking mechanism into the mangled mess it currently was. “You guys still have room mates?” David asked. “I thought you got a five by ten cell in here. How does social distancing work in a space like that?”

Tanya shrugged as they crossed the dark and empty communal area to a pair of elevator doors. “We all tested negative before they allowed us to move back in, and I guess that’s enough of a waiver for the university. We haven’t had to retest since then.”

Stepping into the elevator, David and Tanya stood on the stickers that had been placed on the floor for their protection. Tanya selected a floor from the row of buttons and they suffered through several seconds of awkward elevator silence. Once the elevator came to a halt and the doors opened with a pleasant ding, Tanya leaned out and looked both ways down the corridor they’d arrived at. “Looks like the coast is clear. This is a coed floor, so, while guys aren’t forbidden, the RA doesn’t exactly make them welcome,” she explained as she lead the way down the hallway. “Technically we’re supposed to keep the door open if we have a guy over, but there’s no way that’s happening while we’re talking about ghosts. I get made fun of enough for my Slimer slippers as it is.” They didn’t travel far down the pastel yellow cinder block hall before they came to a heavy wood door bearing two construction paper cutout books with the names Tanya and Emily on them. “Well, here we are,” Tanya said as she pushed the door open.

“Nice place,” David said insincerely as he slipped past Tanya into the room. It was a very stereotypical college dorm room. A single window provided most of the light. On either side of the window were two matching narrow desks with identically worn wooden chairs. Butted up against the desks were two twin beds pressed against opposite walls. Two wardrobes created a narrow hallway between the door and the rest of the room. The room smelled of incense, peaches, strawberry flavored gum, and hairspray. Though the furniture was mirrored, the decoration was not. David assumed the side of the room with the black bedspread, the Joy Division poster, and the gutted lavender and black candles crowding the desk and windowsill was Tanya’s. Though maybe she’d surprise him and claim the side that was surprisingly spartan, aside from the pink bedspread and worn teddy bear propped against the bed’s single pillow. “Well, it’s uh, homey.”

Tanya removed her mask, revealing her black lipstick and a rakish grin. “Yes, very cozy for a family. I knew I liked you, Lloyd. I’ve always liked you.”

David couldn’t help his own wide smile as he glanced around and asked, “So, is there someplace I should sit, or ...”

“Oh, um, right, you can use my roommate’s chair,” Tanya said, brushing past David to pull the chair from the pink side of the room’s desk and point it toward the dark side. David settled down on the seat while Tanya claimed the other and began pulling antique looking books out from her desk drawer. “So, have you experienced any more manifestations?”

David thought back over his spotty memory of the past day or so. “I don’t think so. Not really. I mean, nothing I could definitively say supernatural, I guess. My closet door doesn’t seem to want to stay closed, but that’s about it.”

Resting her hand on the stack of books she’d piled on the table, Tanya hummed in thought. “Well, that’s not entirely surprising. It can take a lot of energy for a creature not of this world to interact with the material realm, and it can take some time to build up that energy. That’s why these things typically happen in cycles of high activity followed by calm periods.” She glanced down at the books and pulled one to the top of the pile. Opening it, she began to flip through the pages as she continued, “I spoke with my … friend, about what it was you saw, and unfortunately she agreed that while we don’t have much to go on, what we do have point to … well, something less than nice.”

David laughed humorlessly. “Well, based off of what I’ve seen, and felt, I wasn’t really expecting it to be Casper.”

Looking up from her book, Tanya regarded him with an even, unamused gaze. “There’s a pretty large gap between a friendly guardian spirit, and something that’s after your life. Totally off topic, but have you visited the woods lately, maybe gone for a hike or something?”

“No, hiking isn’t really my thing,” David said with a shake of his head. “Nature usually doesn’t have that great a cell reception.”

Tanya pursed her lips and tilted her head back toward the book. “Well, it’s probably not a skinwalker then.” She said musingly. “Hopefully. How about any physical marks on your body, like scratches or new bruises, or something? Or maybe, have you been feeling tired, low on energy, easily irritable lately?”

With a frown, David ran through a quick status of his person, but came up empty. “No, nothing like that. Just fucked up dreams and all these little things here and there that don’t seem much by themselves, but they just keep … accumulating, and, I don’t know, give me an uneasy feeling.” He leaned down and rested his elbows on his knees and cradled his head in his hands, running his fingers through his hair before looking up at Tanya from his new vantage point. Talking about what was happening to him made him feel uncomfortable, and unhinged. But at the same time, with how serious Tanya was taking it, he felt like things were becoming strangely concrete and disquietingly real.

Hopefully he asked, “I know you said that we needed to figure out what it is exactly before we deal with it, but is there some sort of general purpose ritual we could do or something, like saging the place? Or maybe use some of those ghost hunting gadgets that could let us communicate with it to figure out what it wants?”

With a roll of her eyes, Tanya replied, “You know those shows are pretty much bullshit, right? Sure, there’s ways we can contact the spirit world, but they’re not through a glorified app. You have to treat the supernatural with respect and caution, or you might end up attracting the attention of something far, far worse. As far as rituals go, saging your apartment probably wouldn’t hurt, but depending on how strong the spirit is, it probably wouldn’t help much either.”

She turned back to the book she was holding and flipped through it to land on an illustrated page. Lifting the book up, she turned it so that David could easily read it. “Now then, based off of what we have so far, I’m leaning toward it being this.” She tapped the page and David followed her digit to where it was resting on the heading, “Demonic Forces.” On the opposing page was a black and white illustration of Baphomet.

Looking back to Tanya, his eyebrow raised incredulously, David asked her, “A demon? Really? I feel like things just escalated quickly. Like we went from, I don’t know, a poltergeist or something, and just ran straight, boom, to Satan.”

Tanya scoffed and rolled her eyes. Taking a deep breath, which caused David’s eyes to involuntarily jump to her nicely sized breasts just for a micro-second, she said, with an air of exasperation, “You probably don’t even know what a poltergeist is.”

“I’ve seen the movie.”

She let out a sigh. “Listen, when we’re discussing the paranormal, demons probably don’t mean what you’re thinking. Broadly speaking, ghosts are divided into two main types. The formerly living, and things that were never what we would consider alive. Everything in the second category falls under the label of demonic, regardless of their association with the Abrahamic traditions. It’s kind of a catch all term for when the entity you’re dealing with can’t be explained by someone who’s deceased.”

David clasped his hands together and placed them in front of his mouth. He had a few concerns with the direction of the conversation, and the fact that he wasn’t immediately dismissing what Tanya was saying out of hand. “So, what you’re saying is that I’m being haunted by something that was never alive? Like a pissed off rock or something?”

“No. It’s more like ...” Tanya looked off to the side in thought for a few seconds before her eyes lit up and she focused on David again. He couldn’t help but feel a bit bewitched by her excited gaze. “It’s like we’re living on two different planets. Like we’re here on Earth, and they’re on Mars, but instead of being separated by space, we’re separated by plains of existence, or I guess, you could call them dimensions. Usually it’s impossible to cross the boundaries between worlds, but every once in a while, something over there visits us here, or someone from here visits there, and you get … well, this.”

David nodded his head a few times in understanding. “So basically, I’m being haunted by an illegal alien.”

Tanya let out a little laugh and shrugged slightly. “I mean, kinda? Look, the important thing is that some of these demons, or non-human entities, can be pretty nasty. They feed off of negative emotions like anger, hate, suffering, fear, things like that, so they try their best to evoke those feelings in you. That’s why I think it appeared to you that way, to draw energy it needed in order to anchor itself in our reality better, to manifest itself in more concrete ways.”

With a turn of his head, David contemplated the blue sky out Tanya’s window as he mulled over what she’d said to him. “What about those protective circles then, who made those?”

“That’s one of the many things I’m not sure about,” Tanya admitted as she leaned back in her chair. “Really, we just don’t have all that much information to go off of. I’d love to be able to do a formal investigation of your place to see if we could maybe answer some of those questions.”

Perking up, David quickly sat straighter in his seat. “That sounds good. Let’s do that, an investigation and all that jazz. When can we do it? Today? Tomorrow?”

Tanya held up her hands as if to stop him. “Whoa there, don’t get too excited. First I have to contact my … friends and see what their schedules are like, and what we need to prepare beforehand. I know some people who are … sensitive to the paranormal like to meditate for a few days before visiting an active site.”

A bit of suspicion creeping into his voice, David asked, “These friends, they’re not the necrophiliacs you mentioned before, are they?”

Tanya averted her eyes and stretched back in her seat before replying, “Well … I mean, there’s not any dead bodies at your place, right? And honestly, I don’t know that they’re all necrophiliacs. I don’t go around asking what everyone’s fetishes are. At least not until the second date.”

With a grin, David asked, “So that means we can talk about my possible appreciation for bondage next time then?” He belatedly realized his mouth had outrun his brain when Tanya’s cheeks darkened in a blush and she looked at him with surprised incredulity. 

She crossed one arm in front of her chest and clasped her elbow. “I mean … wow, okay, yeah, that’s … that’s out there. I guess we could like talk about that kind of thing in more depth, later. Yeah.”

Trying not to look directly at her, David rubbed the back of his neck. “Sorry, sorry. That was TMI. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. Sorry.”

“Oh no,” Tanya said as she waved her hands placatingly. “It’s cool. It’s cool.” She paused for a few pregnant seconds before biting her lips and asking, “But um, do you like being the tie-er, or the tie-ie?” Rapidly waving her hand back and forth while shaking her head, causing her mane to rapidly sway to and fro, she said, “Wait, no, you don’t need to answer that.”

“Yeah,” David agreed, feeling pretty embarrassed still. “We, um, should probably get back to planning that investigation thing. And you’re right, I mean, I might not agree with non-consensual relations with dead people, but I don’t think that’s going to have much bearing on whether we can talk to this demon or not.”

“Cool. Well, I’ll reach out to my friends and see what their availability is. Hopefully we can get together by this weekend and figure out exactly what this thing is, and how to get rid of it for you.”

David sighed. “That would be awesome. I mean, a couple of months ago I was feeling a bit down because of how boring my life was. Now, I’d do just about anything if I could get back to boring.”

Brushing part of her mane behind her ear, Tanya crossed her legs and leaned forward. “Oh come on, you can’t have been all that boring. I mean, you crashed a motorcycle, that’s exciting, right?”

With a self-deprecating laugh, David shrugged. “Well, I guess. But other than that, I’m a pretty normal, boring kind of guy. I spend most of my time playing video games or stuck on social media. I keep trying to stop, but every day when I wake up, I seem to fall back into the same old routine. But what about you? I can tell you enjoy the paranormal and stuff, but what do you do in your spare time, when you’re not shoving q-tips up people’s noses or patching up idiots who fell of their motorcycles?”

Tanya turned her head and regarded the posters on her wall for a second before replying, “Well, I guess I’m a pretty stereotypical spooky kid. I like to read up on ghosts and cryptids. I like watching scary movies, especially atmospheric thrillers. Torture porn isn’t really my thing. I’m a member of … a group of friends. We get together a couple of times a month and perform rituals and things. It’s kind of like a Sunday barbecue usually, but in the woods, and Halloween themed.”

David nodded encouragingly. “That sounds pretty cool,” he said with a bit of envy. “It’s cool that you have something like that, that you’re passionate about, and that you have other people who feel the same way that you can hang out with. My friends and I, well, we hang out, but we don’t have a whole lot of shared interests, so we mostly just chill at one of our houses and watch whatever is on while talking about going out and doing something, without us ever actually going out. Sometimes it feels like we’re just friends due to inertia. So, it’s cool that you’ve got this whole thing going on. Did you always like the supernatural and stuff, or did you get bitten by a vampire one night and show up to school wearing all black the next day?”

With a laugh, Tanya said, “It was more of the vampire thing, but without a vampire. Growing up, I was a pretty typical girl; Disney princesses, Barbie, pink wallpaper, all that. But around sixth grade, I saw a movie and the villain was this witch, and she was so awesome. Her outfit was badass and she didn’t take shit from anyone, and she had these kickass super powers. I remember that she had these super tall black boots that I thought were just so cool. After I saw the movie I took a black sharpie to my sneakers and my mom was super pissed. I guess after that, I just got more and more into it. I started reading and watching everything I could on witches, then vampires, then ghosts, and so on. Somewhere along the way I stopped listening to pop and started wearing Doc Martins.”

“So did you ever get those boots, or the awesome super powers?”

That got another laugh out of Tanya. “No, not really. I’m still on the lookout for those boots. They had like ten inch heels and went all the way up to her thighs. As far as the super powers, I found out that magic is usually much less sexy and a lot more subdued than you’d think.”

“Well, that’s still cool -”

David was interrupted by the door opening forcefully by a young lioness who stormed inside. “This stupid fucking mask,” she said as she clawed the offending article off her small ears, revealing her tooth filled grimace which contrasted sharply with her pastel pink lips, which matched her equally pink blouse and light grey skirt. She stopped just inside the room when she looked up and caught sight of David. “Who the fuck is this, and why is he on my side of the room? Actually, you know what, I don’t care. Just tell your looser of a boyfriend to get his ass out of my chair. Actually, no, it’s your chair now, until it’s been sanitized.”

Awkwardly standing up under the harsh stare of the apex predator, David said to Tanya as he pointed to the door, “You know what, I’m going to go.”

It was Tanya’s roommate who responded. “Good. It might be too late for us not to catch the virus from your scruffy ass, but it’s not too late to avoid your loser germs.”

“Emily,” Tanya said harshly.

“What?” Emily asked, holding her paws up questioningly. “Look at him, he’s obviously not in a frat, and thus not worthy of our attention.” Turning toward David she wiggled her paw dismissively. “Now shoo, go back to whatever hole it was you came from.”

Picking up the vibe Emily was putting down, David turned sideways to squeeze by her. “Anyway, I’m gone,” he said in Tanya’s direction while maintaining eye contact with Emily.

“Bye! I’ll text you the details later,” Tanya called out after him.

“Sounds good.” As he scuttled past Emily and just before heading out the door, he said over his shoulder, “By the way, I prefer tie-ie.”

The door was slammed shut behind him with a loud bang that reverberated up and down the concrete hallway. Far down the hall, near the door marked stairwell, a hippo’s head popped out of an open door and she narrowed her eyes when she caught sight of him. David gave her a nervous smile and a little wave as he walked to the elevators, manually forcing each awkward step under her ceaseless scrutiny. 

A short elevator ride later and David was power walking through the dorm’s communal area and out the insecure security door. It was only after he’d reached the fresh air outside that he realized that he’d forgotten to put his mask on. Shrugging in uncaring acceptance, David decided to social distance himself as he leisurely meandered back home.

While he walked, he considered his options for dealing with living in a haunted house. Well, townhouse. Anyway, his once firm refusal to ever sleep in his own bed again had softened a bit, to the point where maybe he might be okay with it once the mattress had been blessed by both a young priest and an old priest. In the meantime, the couch wasn’t all that far removed from his bedroom, so it probably wouldn’t take too long for the ghost to follow him downstairs. Besides which, the slump in the couch played havoc on his back if he slept on it for too long.

He didn’t feel like he was sick with the coof, but he could be asymptomatic. In which case he really didn’t want to go home and kill his parents by accident. But maybe he could self quarantine in the garage for a couple of weeks. It was unfortunate that he was an only child and that half his extended family lived on the other side of the country, while the other half lived on the opposite coast, so crashing with one of his less virusy susceptible family members wasn’t much of an option. There was the family’s summer cabin that was fairly isolated, but it was a couple of states away and David was currently sans ride of his own. The closest, and most expedient option for resting his head, outside the couch, was crashing at Dan’s. Usually Dan’s acerbic personality would cause friction between him and David if they were under the same roof for more than a couple of days, but with Dan away visiting his parents, David had carte blanche to appropriate his much more luxurious couch until either Tanya and her friends sent whatever was haunting him packing, or he came up with a new plan.

Coming to his resolution to avail himself of Dan’s standing hospitality, David found himself crossing the familiar desolation that was the parking lot for his apartment complex. Ahead, next to the stairs leading up to his apartment, he could see Becky’s bike parked. 

As he drew closer, his stomach turned for some reason and he felt his heart begin to beat faster. By the time he’d reached the stairs, his palms were sweaty and has he mounted the steps, his feet slowed themselves, slower and slower as he got closer to the top, until he was standing still on the landing in front of his door. For several long seconds he occupied himself by reveling in the warm feeling of the sun against his skin as he stared long and hard at the tarnished brass knob of his front door.

Chiding himself for his uncharacteristic reluctance to return home, David forced himself to walk across the cement landing and quickly open his door. There, sitting on his couch, her hands in her lap, was Becky. She’d been watching something on TV, but as David opened the door, her hears perked in his direction and he could hear her tail thumping rapidly against the couch cushions. 

Seeing her sitting there, dressed in a pale blue sweater and tight pair of cream capris that accentuated her figure, smiling at him in welcome, David felt a cold spike of terror shred through his guts.


	5. Chapter 5

“Welcome home, David,” she said with a warm, melodious voice that filled David with an inexplicable fear. His skin crawling, David tried to quiet all the irrational fears and instincts screaming at him to get the fuck out of there.

“H-hey, Becky,” David said as he grasped the door frame for support.

There was a pregnant pause as they simply stared at one another for several long seconds. Cocking her head to the side, Becky asked, “Well, aren’t you going to come in?”

David laughed nervously. “Yeah. Sure. I was just enjoying how nice a day it was outside.” Physically forcing himself, he stepped into the apartment and softly pushed the front door closed. The gentle click of the latch left him feeling adrift, like a man who’s fallen overboard and is treading water as he watches his ship sail away. Seeking something solid to anchor himself to, David lurched across the room to lean heavily on the kitchen counter. He could really go for a drink right about then.

“Are you feeling okay?” Becky asked with genuine concern as she stood up from the couch, causing a fresh wave of anxiety to wash over David.

With an edge of desperation in his voice, David answered, “Never better. How about you, how’s your day been going?” 

There was a loud, wet thud from behind the door leading to his former roommate’s room, loud enough that if there had been any pictures on the walls, they would have rattled. Becky didn’t show any sign of having heard it, so David pretended he hadn’t either.

Still regarding David with concern, Becky said, “Well, same old, same old really. I enjoyed my time off, went for a ride, did a bit of photography, some cleaning up, things like that. How about you, David? What have you been up to today? Where did you go, who did you visit?”

“A friend,” David said. A drink really, really sounded nice, but his home was pretty dry at the moment. Other than tap water, all he had was orange juice, and the thought of the sweetly acidic pulpy beverage was enough to make him retch. “We’re … we’re working on a project together.”

“Oh, I see. How nice.” For a moment, Becky appeared oddly resigned, but then she smiled brightly and jerked a thumb toward the screen. “Anyway, how about a movie? We can stay in and have another cozy movie night tonight, unless you have something better we can do.”

David grimaced and shook his head. “No, not tonight. I-I’ve got a headache.”

Becky’s ears fell and her face scrunched up in concern. “Oh dear. Would you like some tylenol or something?” She stepped around the coffee table and toward David.

Holding up his hand to forestall her from coming any closer, David said, “No! No, I’m fine. I think I just need some time alone, to rest.”

Her concern tempered by a hint of suspicion, Becky backed away a bit. “Okay, if you say so, David. I just want what’s best for you. You know that, right?”

Feeling fed up with her for some reason, David snidely replied, “Is that why you stole half my silverware and all my kitchen knives?”

For a moment, Becky stood absolutely still, completely expressionless. Her tongue darted out and whetted her lips and then she let out a hearty, empty sounding laugh. “Stole is a bit of a strong word, David. I think ‘relieved’ works better. I’ve seen how you usually fend for yourself when it comes to food. Be honest, it’s not like you’re going to miss them all that much and now it will be that much more difficult for you to accidentally hurt yourself. I’m just trying to make things safer for you, David.”

There was something about her tone, about the way she was staring at him, like some stranger was wearing a Becky mask, their cold eyes peering through her warm and caring visage, which made David’s stomach sink even lower. His side against the kitchen counter was out of her line of sight, and he used that to his advantage as his hand slowly slid into his pocket and retrieved his cell phone.

“Safer? You’re not my mom, Becky. What gives you the right to come in here and change things, take my stuff without my permission? You’re my friend, you were my friend, but that doesn’t mean you can tell me how to live my life.”

Becky stood there, her mouth locked into a darkly amused smile. “What right do I have? Don’t you see, David, I have every right. The moment you proved you couldn’t look after yourself, it was up to someone, anyone who had your best interests at heart to take care of you, keep you safe.” She flexed her fingers, slowly curling them into a fist. Her cracking knuckles reverberated through the room. “We belong together now, David. I know it might take a little getting used to, but don’t worry, when you finally accept that you just need to leave things to me, everything will be so much better, so much easier.”

Seeing her standing, muscles tensed, David was reminded just how much larger, stronger, and faster Becky was than him. With an audible gulp, David sternly said, “Becky, I think you need to go. I’m not comfortable with you here right now.”

She let out a giggle, which sounded odd coming from her. With a small shake of her head, like a teacher faced with an unwilling student, Becky cajolingly said, “What’s the matter, David. Why don’t you relax? We can order a pizza, watch Freddy versus Jason, have a good time. Doesn’t that sound like fun?”

Wetting his painfully dry lips, David repeated, “Becky, I really think you should leave. Please.” His phone still down by his leg, he used his thumb to unlock the screen and then relying on muscle memory, opened the call screen and punched in 911. He hoped.

Her mood turned a hundred and eighty degrees as her mouth turned into a scowl. “What’s the matter, David? Why are you saying that? You know we belong together. Aren’t I everything you wanted in a woman? It’s Tanya’s fault, isn’t it. That little bitch has been filling your head with poison, hasn’t she?”

David suddenly was very, very still. With narrowed eyes he asked, “How do you know about Tanya?”

Becky’s eye twitched. “You told me her name, remember? You’re new little friend, who you’ve been so excited about, who you’ve been texting nonstop?”

“No. No, I don’t think I did, Becky.” If David’s previous terror had already hit fifth gear, the vtec just kicked in. “Listen, you should go. Now. And I don’t think you should come back. Please, leave.”

With a mirthless smile that revealed her many, very sharp teeth, Becky replied, “No. I don’t think I will, David. I think it’s about time that we … clarified a few things actually.”

She took a step toward him and David jumped backwards, bouncing off the apartment wall as he brandished his cellphone in front of him, the numbers 911 prominently displayed in the dialer, his thumb just over the dial button. Becky’s eyes flicked to the phone and then back to David’s face, her expression stony, calculating.

Blustering, David loudly said, “We’re three minutes away from the nearest police station. You might be able to fuck me up, but you won’t get far.”

With a bitter smile, Becky replied, “I think you underestimate just what I can do in three minutes, David.”

His eyes, locked with Becky’s, David pressed down on the call button with his thumb. It rang twice before it picked up. “Hello, 911, what’s your emergency?”

Becky frowned as she focused on the phone. She shook her head in disappointment. “You’re going to regret this, David. This isn’t over. I only want what’s best. You’ll see. Everything will be all right.” Without a trace of defeat in her posture, she marched over to the front door, and with a final glare in David’s direction, she slammed the door on her way out. David just about sprinted over to the door to throw the bolt. He watched through the blinds as she strolled down the stairs, and pulled on her helmet before mounting her bike and riding off, all without a single glance back in David’s direction.

“Hello, 911 here, are you in trouble?”

David raised the phone to his ear and said, “Sorry about that, I butt dialed you. There’s no emergency. Thanks.”

The voice on the other side of the phone sounded a bit peeved. “I understand, sir. Please understand that this line is for emergencies only. Thank you.”

The phone went dead and David let the hand holding his phone fall to his side. He wasn’t sure what to feel exactly as he listened to Becky’s bike roar into the distance. Fear principlely, and like Becky had said, that things were still unfinished between them. One thing was for sure, David wasn’t planning on hanging around for when Becky came back.

Double checking the deadbolt was thrown, David raced upstairs to his bedroom. The closet door was open, but in the afternoon sunlight, his fears of the paranormal seemed quaint compared to his terror of Becky. He grabbed his little used backpack and threw the essentials in, his laptop, various chargers, and a couple of changes of clothes. He skipped back down the stairs and paused for a few seconds to turn off the TV before he peaked out the blinds again. He scanned the parking lot for a few minutes, but there was no signs of life. Screwing up his courage, David unlocked the door, and as he put his hand on the handle, the door to the former roommate’s room shook as if someone had grabbed the knob and was testing to see if the door was locked. David glanced at the door over his shoulder, opened the front door and stepped outside.

For the first time he could remember, he fished his house key out of his pocket and locked the door after him. Tearing down the steps, he cut through the hedges on the side of the apartment building and hopped the short chain link fence that separated his complex from the next one over. Avoiding the main streets, David made his way toward Dan’s apartment.


	6. Chapter 6

Dan’s apartment was on the opposite side of campus from David’s, located in the not so nice part of town. A place where the rent was cheap, but not cheap enough to prevent many of the tenants from not making it on time. Most delivery services refused to visit the area due to the high number of robberies, and on most weekends you could spend the evening watching the police kick in a door or two. Dan’s reasoning for living in such a place was that the money he saved on rent was enough to afford the best business class connection their ISP offered. He had the temerity to leave his front door unlocked because he believed that no one would believe that anyone would leave anything unlocked in such a crime ridden neighborhood and thus wouldn’t even try to open the door. Thus far he’d been proven right.

Thanks to David’s circuitous route, aimed at avoiding Becky if she were out looking for him, it took a couple of hours for David to arrive at the familiar street leading to Dan’s dwelling. Somewhere someone was playing music, and the bass reverberated throughout the whole neighborhood. At the far end of the street there was a group of guys, most not wearing shirts, much less masks, who were playing basketball beneath a jauntily bent hoop that had lost its net long ago.

These signs of life felt reassuring to David. There was something comforting about being around other people, even if they might shake you down for your phone, or shoes. At least they acted reasonably, with some sort of rationality, not like the random actions of a ghost, or possibly mentally unhinged person like Becky.

Parked in front of Dan’s apartment was his old, rusted beater of a car. He rented a garage to house his primary means of transportation, his bike, but David assumed he’d ridden that back home. It was difficult to tell how old, or what kind of car it was, the badges and branding had long ago fallen off or been lost to rust. Even the car’s original color was a mystery underneath the patina of grime that had accumulated over it. One clue to its age was the aftermarket tape player that had been crudely mounted into the dash at some point with sheetrock screws. The dead leaves gathered around the tires spoke to how little Dan drove the car, preferring even on rainy days to take his bike instead.

David strolled past the car and the thin strip of dead grass that constituted the apartment’s landscaping. He mounted the couple of steps up to the concrete slab that served as a porch and pushed open the apartment’s front door. It was pretty much how he remembered it, dark and dank, though it appeared Dan had picked up a little before he’d left. The usual pile of empty Amazon boxes next to the door was missing.

Dan’s apartment was made up of two long rooms. The one the front door opened into encompassed the living room, dining room, kitchen, and laundry room. The demarcation point between these areas was where the worn carpet ended and the curling linoleum began, with a strip of the sub-floor exposed between. David vaguely remembered the linoleum being a pale yellow, but it had been a long time since he’d seen it. Sticking from the living room portion of the room’s ceiling were a couple of bare wires and screw holes from where a light fixture had been ripped out before Dan had moved in. The kitchen lights were a pair of long florescent tubes that had flickered themselves to death a couple of years ago, so the only source of light in the room, aside from when the fridge’s door was opened, was the window next to the front door whose blinds were always kept tightly closed.

The dining area was in the kitchen and was composed of a stained, rusty folding table surrounded by three mismatched stools, one of which was actually taller than the table itself. Next to the fridge was a small closet that served as a pantry, as well as the home of the water heater, and a very small stacking washer/dryer combination, which always smelled of mold. The living room was rather sparse. Along one wall, just in front of the front door, was a long couch, somewhat less battered than David’s. On the wall opposite it was a decently sized TV sitting on the floor, with a single, lonely cord stretched to a wall socket several feat away. The wall the TV was leaning against was also the one that had a door which led into Dan’s bedroom.

David tossed his backpack next to the couch and walked over to poke his head into Dan’s room. As expected, no one was home. In the dim light filtering in around the blackout curtain covering the room’s only window, David could make out Dan’s bed, his gaming chair, rather basic desk, and rather elaborate computer rig, which costed nearly as much as his motorcycle had. The computer’s tower was uncharacteristically dark, and without the whirring of cooling fans, the room felt oddly silent. Flipping on the light, the room was bathed in all the illumination the single forty watt bulb screwed into the ceiling fan could generate. On the far end of the room from the covered window were two doors, one leading to a tiny bathroom, the other to Dan’s slightly larger closet.

David availed himself of the facilities, absently noting that Dan had finally done his laundry and had hung up towels in the bathroom to wipe his hands on. He then rummaged through Dan’s closet to locate the spare pillow and blankets he kept there. Returning to the living room, the threw the bedding onto the couch and grabbed a beer from the fridge. Collapsing on the couch’s worn cushions, he held the cold beer against his forehead for a few moments before he opened it and started sipping from it. What was he going to do?

He’d never had to deal with a psycho before. Some of his acquaintances had complained about how insane their girlfriends had been, and the things that had happened after breaking up, like keyed cars, or bricks through windows. But David had never experienced something like that first hand until now. Becky had seemed so nice when he’d met her, where had things gone wrong? Should he call the cops? She’d stolen his stuff, but it wasn’t like it was worth all that much. Probably the most valuable thing had been that katana, and David had lost interest in it about a week after buying it and trying to cut through coke cans until the blade had chipped. Maybe if he just left things alone, everything would go back to normal. He could lay low for a few weeks, or months, and Becky would find someone else to obsess over and everything would be cool.

Feeling himself beginning to go down his normal path of least resistance and simply do nothing until things were resolved one way or another, David remembered one thing that did give him pause. Becky had mentioned Tanya. He didn’t want to think about how Becky knew about Tanya, but it would be pretty shitty to hide from Becky without giving Tanya a heads up that there was a crazy person out there who had her on her radar.

Pulling out his phone, David texted Tanya, “Hey.”

Almost immediately he received a reply, “Hey. What’s up?”

“So I got into a fight with my,” he paused for a few seconds to think about the best way to describe his relationship with Becky. “neighbor. It got pretty bad, and for some reason your name came up. I wanted to give you a heads up that you should probably avoid a tall dog if she comes looking for me. Her name is Becky, she has blue eyes, and a really fluffy golden coat.”

Tanya replied with a shocked emoticon. “Is she going to kill me in my sleep?!”

“I don’t think so? I think she’s just looking for me, so she can kill me in my sleep.”

“Understood. Maybe you should talk to her before the murder so you guys can hash things out though.”

“Yeah. Maybe. Anyway I just wanted to let you know in case she shows up. Hopefully it’s nothing.”

“Cool. By the way, I’m still rounding up everyone we’ll need for our investigation, but so far it’s looking like Friday or Saturday night will work the best.”

“Nice. Let me know when you have the day/time nailed down.”

“Will do. I’ve got to go, the head nurse is frownin at my textin.”

“TTYL.”

Feeling a bit better now that his duty was discharged, though still a bit apprehensive over what Becky might be thinking of doing, David locked his phone and sat in the gloom of Dan’s apartment sipping from his beer occasionally. His dopamine levels running dangerously low, he stood and made up his bed on Dan’s couch, then pulled his laptop out of his bag. He laid it down on his stomach and began to stream the latest season of the superhero show de jour.

The night was coming earlier and earlier. All too soon the room was almost completely dark, save for the island of bright white light coming from his laptop’s screen, and the dull orange strips below the window from the halogen street light outside. Noticing that his laptop’s battery was running low, David got up to fumble in the dark to find a wall outlet to plug it’s charger into. The green led of happiness illuminated, David pulled another beer from the fridge and enjoyed it as he changed into shorts and a tank top in preparation for sleep. Feeling relaxed from the alcohol in his system, David began to feel drowsy and nodded off to sleep.

Sometime later he woke up. At some point he’d rolled over onto his side, and from his point of view, nothing in the room had changed, and there was no indication of what time it was. His sleep fogged brain tried to figure out what had pulled him out of his slumber, but drew a blank. Just as he was on the cusp of shrugging his mental shoulders and going back to sleep, there was a noise from the neighbor upstairs. The ceiling creaked as heavy footsteps walked from the kitchen area toward the front door, and then back again. They repeated the circuit for a while as whoever was up there paced back and forth. David was on the point of abandoning sleep for a while and cracking open his laptop again, when the sounds stopped. There was one final thump, and then silence reigned once more through the apartment, and David began to relax and let sleep take a hold of him.

He was on the verge of drifting off when a new sound interrupted him. It was a dripping sound, like from a leaky faucet. It came from the direction of the kitchen area, but David assumed it wasn’t from Dan’s kitchen sink. That faucet had never been opened, so there was no need for it to leak. The dripping wasn’t constant or steady. The drops were spaced out, at just the right time for David to think that maybe they’d stopped and he could go back to sleep before the next one fell. In the otherwise silent apartment, they sounded obscenely loud.

Eventually growing frustrated, David got up from the couch and began to stalk through the apartment searching for the leak. Through echolocation he determined that the dripping wasn’t coming from Dan’s bedroom, or from the kitchen. After a few minutes and a few more drops, David realized that they were coming from the wires hanging from where the light fixture had once been. In the dim gloom from the street lamp coming in from the window, he watched as moisture beaded up on the exposed wires before falling to the carpet below where a small puddle had formed. He brushed his fingers through the puddle, but whatever it was didn’t feel quite like water. The upstairs neighbor must have spilled something and now it was leaking through the ceiling.

With an exasperated sigh, David pulled one of his shirts from his bag and used it to wipe his hands. Deciding to deal with it tomorrow, he just folded up the shirt and used it as a towel to cover the pool on the floor. The next drip from the ceiling landed on the shirt, blissfully silent. Since he was up anyway, David padded over to the fridge and pulled out another beer. He shotgunned it before heading back to bed. In no time at all, he was deep asleep once again.

The next time he awoke, he wasn’t quite sure when consciousness returned to him. It felt like he’d gone from REM to one hundred percent awake in a microsecond. The room was the same as before, dark, silent, the only light coming in dimly through the window. However David was now on his back, and his heart was racing a mile a minute and he could feel a cold sweat beading up on his forehead. He tried to raise his hand to wipe it away, but with dawning horror, realized that he couldn’t move his arm. In fact, he couldn’t move any of his body, just his eyes. His body paralyzed, David’s heart sped up even more, and his breath came in short, panicked gasps. 

He swung his eyes wildly around the room, but there wasn’t anything different to explain why he was unable to move. There was however an ominous feeling in the air, as if there were something staring at him. A shadow passed in front of the light coming in from the window and David fearfully glanced toward it, but there was nothing there. Staring at the bars of light on the dingy carpet for several long seconds, nothing else happened, so David closed his eyes and sighed, trying to calm down and figure out what was going on. When he opened his eyes, the skull faced creature was standing at the end of the couch where David’s feet were resting.

The figure was as still as death, looming over him, appearing to brush the ceiling with its antlers, its empty eye sockets locked on David’s face. David forgot how to breath, and even if he weren’t paralyzed, he would have laid absolutely still, futility hoping that death would pass him by. They stayed locked in that position for hours, or maybe minutes. It felt like an eternity for David. Neither of them moving or making any sound in the absolute silence that permeated the apartment. Just David lying there, and it’s tall frame standing straight and tall, but feeling as if it were also crouched over David, its stark white face pressed against his. Finally, the skull faced figure raised one of it’s robed arms, revealing an almost skeletal hand with impossibly long fingers capped with long, ragged black nails. It raised it’s index finger and pointed beyond David’s head, toward the apartment’s front door. David whimpered as the figure moved its arm, and began to hyperventilate as the creature stood over him, stock still, staring into the depths of his soul with its lidless eye sockets.

At some point his terror must have overwhelmed him and he must have passed out because the next thing David knew, he gasped deeply and sat up on the couch. It was still night, and the room was empty. No sign of any giant spooky scary skeletons. In the distance was the sound of fire crackers, or small caliber gun shots going off, and David sighed in relief as he ran this hands through his sweaty hair. He felt wired, but at the same time tired, as if he’d never slept at all. He shivered due to the room being exceedingly cold. Wrapping the blanket tighter around himself, David laid back down on the couch and ran over what had happened in his mind.

As he laid there in the dark, thinking things over, he realized that there was a sound coming from Dan’s bedroom. He thought it might be the computer’s fans turning, but then realized it was too soft for that. It sounded like someone was breathing while shaking, either from the cold, or from excitement. Curious, Dan cocked his head to the side and focused on the door to Dan’s bedroom as he tried to listen more carefully in order to figure out what the sound was.

The breathing had stopped. However, there came the sound of popping joints, like someone had cracked their knuckles, but there were too many pops, and they were far too loud. Then came a hushed, darkly amused, breathy chuckle. For a moment David was scarred that Becky had found him, but the laugh was too high pitched for her.

Without further preamble, something emerged from the darkness beyond Dan’s door. It crawled along the floor like it was climbing up the wall. It was difficult to make out in the darkness, but David could see that it had long black hair, and thin white limbs. They were so thin that the bones and tendons were easy to discern as they flexed while the thing crawled. The body was wrapped in a ragged white cloth covered in patches of filth. It paused after entering the room and raised its head slightly, not enough for David to make out any features. It turned one way, then the other, as if searching for something. David did his absolute best not to make a sound as he tightened his grip on the blanket that was raised to his chin.

The person, or creature, or whatever, resumed its cockroach like crawl across the dingy carpet. It paused at the shirt that was soaking up whatever was dripping from the ceiling and cocked its head. It then resumed its journey, angling a bit toward the kitchen, and David lost sight of it as it approached the wall hidden by the end of the couch his feet were on.

His hands were shaking as they clutched at the blanket, and it felt like he was on the verge of a heart attack. Trying to hold back his gasping breath, David raised his head a little to try and see over the end of the couch, not wanting to move too far, or make too much noise to give himself away. Peering through the darkness, he couldn’t see anything. No hint of movement, nothing. There wasn’t any sounds giving away the location of the thing.

From behind him, a gravely woman’s voice hissed out, “Daaavvviiiiieee...”

David looked up and a rotting face was just above his, its filthy, clotted, black hair hanging down, a scant millimeter away. The thing was once a woman anthro of some type. It’s fur was a dingy, dirty grey. It’s eyes were covered with opaque cataracts, most of its nose was missing, and its lip-less mouth was forever in the shape of a smile full of narrow, sharp teeth that seemed like it wrapped completely around its head. It’s talon like fingers were sharp and cold as it latched onto his shoulders and leaned closer, its rank hair acting like a curtain to cut off sight of everything else.

“Found you, Davie,” It spat through its clenched teeth, it’s breath smelling like rotting eggs. As it leaned down, it began to open its mouth, and a white worm-like tongue was revealed.

Out of some self-preservative instinct, David shouted and pushed the thing away as he leapt off the couch with all of his strength. He whirled around, not wanting to turn his back on whatever it was while he looked for a weapon to fight it with, but it was gone.

He twirled, searching the room, but there was no one there. His tank top sticking to his back with sweat, David continued slowly spinning, searching for an explanation as to what had just happened. Without warning, there was a searing pain in his still healing shoulder, even worse than from when he’d sprained it. He cradled it as he fell into a kneeling position from the pain. After a moment, the worst had passed, but his shoulder still felt as if it were on fire.

David struggled to his feet, breathing heavily, his adrenaline pumping. He looked down at his shoulder and saw that there were three deep red welts beginning to form. As he stared at them in shock, there came an excruciating pain from his lower back, as if someone had just stabbed him. Reacting more from reflex than from any kind of plan, David lunged forward and ripped open the apartment’s front door. He stumbled through it and landed heavily on the grass strip outside. Turning around, he scooted away from the apartment while keeping an eye on it. As he watched, the door to Dan’s apartment slowly swung closed and he could hear the deadbolt being thrown.


	7. Chapter 7

Somewhere in the distance a dog was barking. The night was cool, but nowhere as cold as Dan’s apartment had been. That said, the slightly warm breeze that was blowing did little to stop David’s shaking from adrenaline and nerves. His mind reeling from what had just happened, David summed up the width and breadth of his whirling emotions with a single eloquent, “Fuck.”

Still reclined on the grass, his bruised and scuffed hands holding up his torso, David’s dazed and horrified stupor was broken when he noticed that the blinds to Dan’s apartment were slowly, inexorably opening. A fresh jet of terror burned away all his extraneous thoughts and allowed him to focus with laser-like clarity on one single goal, getting as far away as possible from whatever the hell that had been. He was underdressed for running for his life, but at least even though he wasn’t wearing shoes, his socks were athletic, so that should help, right? He climbed to his feet and started sprinting off down the road, the familiar weight of his phone in his short’s pocket slapping him in the thigh. His quirk of not feeling totally secure without it on his person, even as he slept meant that at least he was leaving with something more than the clothes on his back.

David was far from being in the best shape of his life, and the loose pebbles of asphalt that he stepped on every so often weren’t doing any favors for his effort at running. By the time he’d reached the end of the street, his sprint had become more of a jog. He braved a look behind him and saw that the orange street light in front of Dan’s apartment had gone dark, leaving that entire section of street a black mass of shadows. There was a hint of movement in the darkness, maybe a tree branch, but David didn’t feel up to finding out. Pushing through the pain, he redoubled his pace.

Initially he’d started running with the simple goal of getting away, but as he drew closer to campus, he began going through his options of a final destination for the night. Ghosts and other spooky shit didn’t do well in the day, right? So if he made it through the night he should be good. It was as he reached that conclusion that through the branches of some nearby trees, he saw the lights of the library. The library that was open twenty four hours a day for the sake of all the hard studying insomniacs. Scattered throughout the library were several quiet study rooms that could easily double as a convenient place to crash. As a matter of fact, there was a persistent rumor about a student in the eighties or nineties who’d lived in the library for a few semesters, constantly moving from one out of the way room to another, avoiding the attention of the librarians.

Deciding it was as good a place as any to hole up in for the remainder of the night, David turned his steps toward the fortress-like building. The brick walkways of campus where slightly more comfortable to run on than the asphalt had been. The walkways were well lit, but quite deserted. Reaching the library, David burst in through one of the small side entrances. The desk that was supposed to be manned by a student librarian was empty. They were probably fucking off somewhere, probably quite literally, so there was no one to witness his frantic arrival.

Pausing as the scent that could only be described as literary that permeated all the books as well as the building washed over him, David began thinking over his options. Out of hand he discarded the idea of resting on the main floors. With his current attire and lack of student ID, they’d probably assume he was a bum and kick him out. Casting around for an alternative, David saw a nearby staircase leading down to the reference archives. That’d do. Technically no one was supposed to go down there without authorization from the librarians, but with no one on duty to tell him not to, David stumbled down the marble steps leading into the older section of the library.

At the bottom of the stairs, down a short hallway being used as storage for old desks and chairs, were a pair of heavy wooden doors that looked like they would be more at home in a medieval castle. Straining a bit to pull one open, David was greeted by a pitch black room beyond. However, unlike the darkness back at Dan’s, David didn’t feel a disquieting unsavoriness from the room in front of him. Instead, it felt more antique, the air undisturbed and reluctant to move, like the weight of centuries were pressing down upon him.

Stepping inside, David jumped a bit when a loud clunk reverberated through the room and the lights over him came on. Decades ago, as a cost saving means, the university had invested in one of the first motion activated light systems for all its buildings. Over time it had either been removed, or upgraded to a much quieter, less obtrusive system. Everywhere else but there.

In the pool of light cast by the row of lamps suspended above him by long thin wires from the vaulted ceiling that was still obscured by the layer of shadows above, David found himself standing on a white marble platform that was the top of a stairway descending to the floor below. In front of him were innumerable rows of bookshelves that stretched into the dark recesses of the room. The shelves were arranged so that there were three aisles that ran the length of the room, one along each wall, and one through the middle, beginning at the foot of the stairs.

Having done a bit of exploring his first year in college, David recalled there were rooms for students to use when going through reference material about two thirds of the way down the room, along the wall to his right, so he descended the stairs and via the central aisle, entered the stacks.

The room had been arranged so that there was a row of lights situated above each row of bookshelves. That meant that whenever he passed from one row to the next, with a Frankensteinian throw of a switch, the next set of lights came on above him, dispelling the next bit of darkness. He was about four or five rows into the room when with a thud, the first row of lights turned themselves off. From that point on, his steps were accompanied periodically by two clunks, the first from the next set of lights turning on, the second from the farthest pool of light returning to darkness.

As he walked, David noticed the room in the air was stagnant and despite the room’s cavernous size, noise didn’t travel far. The shelves he passed, as well as the books they held all felt far older than David, but they were all tidy and well cared for, without a speck of dust or cobweb to be seen. The books were of various sizes and shapes, some appearing old enough to be leather bound tombs that contained extraneous e’s and substituted f’s for s’s. Others looked to be printed on reams of old tracked printer paper hastily bound together by the university’s print shop, and other books ran the gambit between. David idly wondered what painfully dull and dry subjects all the books around him dealt with.

He was perhaps halfway across the room when the heard an extra clunk of lights activating. Confused, he looked around and noticed that the first row of lights above the door he’d come through had come on, but he couldn’t see anyone who could have activated them. A chill ran down his spine, and he could feel his heart, that had begun to calm down ever since stepping into the library, speed back up. Speeding up his pace, David began power walking toward his hopeful sanctuary. As if matching his steps, the lights behind him began to light up, row after row, as if someone were sedately following after him.

His anxiety kicking into high gear, David broke into a run, nearly sliding into a bookcase when he saw the first of the side room doors down an aisle and turned too quickly. Racing down the hallway of books, he barreled into the door as he grabbed at the knob. But he bounced off and the knob refused to budge. There was another door to his left, so he raced over to it, but it too was locked. Behind him the clunking of the lights continued as the pool of light surrounding David grew smaller, and the light of her pursuer drew closer.

David ran along the wall to the next door down, and found it was locked like the others. His heart in his throat, David turned and saw there there were no more doors in sight. There probably were more in the depths of the remaining darkness, but he didn’t have the luxury of time. The clunking of lights had stopped. Whoever, or whatever, was following him had caught up to his illuminated area. There were six rows of lights left on, pushing back the impenetrable darkness that swallowed the rest of the room. With an all too familiar clunk, the furthest row of lights turned off, and there were only five left on. David began worrying the door handle while bouncing off the door with his shoulder.

Clunk, and there were only four rows of illumination left. It felt like the knob had given way a bit, and David threw all of his strength into twisting it back and forth. Clunk. Three left. The door was solid wood and it felt like it was only barely reacting to David throwing his weight against it. Clunk. Two left. With one final, desperate twist, the door’s knob lost its resistance and David fell into the small room beyond.

He didn’t take the time to admire his surroundings, opting instead to slam the door shut behind him. As he did so, the next to last row of lights shut off, and through the rapidly closing crack between the door and its jamb, David caught a glimpse of movement, like someone’s outstretched foot about to step around the corner of the bookcase that led to his hiding place.

The door shut, David tried to lock it, but the little protrusion from the knob only spun around without engaging. Casting about in the dim glow coming from under the door, David saw that the only furnishings in the room were a desk with tall privacy dividers and a sturdy looking chair. Trying his best to be quiet after all the racket he’d made while opening the door, David grabbed the chair and wedged it under the doorknob. He wasn’t entirely sure what that would accomplish, but the did it all the time in the movies, so it had to be at least a bit effective, right? Collapsing onto the room’s thin carpet, next to the chair, David fearfully watched the slit of light at the bottom of the door. 

Aside from his pounding heart and chocked back gasps, the entire library was dead silent. After a few seconds of observation, David saw that the band of light was interrupted by a shadow, causing him to draw in a hissing breath that he tried to hold back by covering his mouth with his hands. The shadow undulated a bit, growing slightly wiser and slightly narrower. Then it bifurcated into two narrow shadows with a bit of light between them. The moment David realized it was the shadow of a pair of legs from someone standing close in front of the door, with a final clunk, the last row of lights went out and everything was plunged into absolute darkness.

There should have been a light switch just above David’s head, but he really, really didn’t want to flip it. Instead he crouched in the dark, absolutely still, his eyes screwed shut as he strained his ears to try and pick up the faintest hint of sound. For several seconds, perhaps minutes, everything was deathly quiet. Then there came a tapping at his chamber door. It wasn’t a knock. Rather, it was more like someone had rested their hand on the door and had lightly drummed their fingers against it. It came again, each light thud echoing in David’s ear, causing bowel shaking earthquakes of doubt and remorse.

He winced in anticipation of the next tap, but leapt to his feet, his hands covering his ears when instead of the light drumming, there came a horrible crashing sound, as if several of the bookcases in the room beyond had fallen down simultaneously. After that there came an angry, inhuman shriek that cut off as abruptly as it began. Once again, David was left in the silent darkness.

But it wasn’t the same darkness anymore. It felt as if a weight had been lifted from him. He hadn’t noticed when the oppressive feelings of madness and terror had begun to assault him, but not that they were gone, he could clearly discern their absence. Almost immediately he went from fearing for his life to feeling calm, almost peaceful. Wearily he slumped to the floor and cradled his head in his hands. He didn’t know how, or from what, but he knew with absolute certainty that he was safe for now. Relief flooded through him, and his adrenaline high began to abate. Suddenly finding himself feeling exhausted, David curled up under the desk and despite the thin carpet, fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.


	8. Chapter 8

David slowly returned to consciousness. His brain was foggy, but a constant, aching pain urged him awake. Blinking his eyes, he found that it was just about as dark with them open as it was with them closed. He couldn't help giving out an agonized groan as he rolled into a sitting position. There might be a right way to sleep on a concrete floor padded by a few millimeters of threadbare carpet, but it was obvious he didn't know it.

His shoulder felt almost as bad as it had when he'd sprained it. He rotated it a few times back and forth, but it didn't feel like the bone had popped out of the socket, it was just really, really sore. Instinctively David began reaching for his bottle of pills, but then remembered he wasn't at home. The previous night's events came back to him in a flash. What the fuck had that been? How long had that thing been haunting Dan's apartment, and had it really followed him, or had that been some other spooky bullshit?

Standing up with another groan, David stretched and popped a few of his vertebrae, loosening up his back. Pulling out his phone, he saw that it was ten thirty in the morning, and that he only had thirteen percent battery life left. There weren’t any new text messages, but there was an e-mail notification from one of the pizza chains he ordered from, offering a buy one get one deal. Even in his darkest hour he could count on advertising spam to help see him through. Using the illumination from the phone's screen, David located the light switch next to the door and flicked it on.

A fluorescent bulb embedded in the ceiling flickered to life, providing the room with both a cold light and a droning buzz. Pulling the chair out from under the knob, David sat down and took stock of himself. Still wearing a tank top and shorts, it was easy to see the angry red welts on his shoulder. They looked as if someone had tried to recreate the Monster logo on his arm by using actual claws. The scratches were painful and warm to the touch, but weren’t openly bleeding. He felt around on his back using his good arm, but he couldn't feel any puncture from where he'd been hit last night. However, it did twinge in pain if he rotated his body in certain directions. Resolving not to move that way for a while, David held his head in his hands and tried to think over what his next moves should be. As he thought, he absently wiggled his toes and discovered there was a rather large hole in his socks.

Popping his toes in and out of the hole, David went over his limited options. He'd left his bag back at Dan's, but there wasn't a chance in hell he'd be going back to that place alone. He could try and get help from Tanya, but she was living in dorms, with a roommate who didn’t seem to care much for him, so while he was sure she'd be sympathetic, there probably wasn't much material aid she could provide. Really he just needed to make it until the weekend, when Tanya and her friends would do their seance, or whatever, and figure out how to bust all the ghosts plaguing him, and get David's life back to relative normalcy. He didn't really want to stay in his apartment until then, but maybe a quick visit to pick up some clothes and other essentials wouldn't be too bad. He could sneak in, avoiding his deranged neighbor, grab a couple of things, then get the fuck out. 

He pondered exactly where he'd go. One option would be to come back to the library. It would be relatively easy to hang around for a couple of days, until his apartment was fumigated, or whatever the ghost version of that was. But, after last night's strangeness, as well as experiencing the inhospitality of the cold floor, David wasn't too keen on the idea, and decided to keep it as a backup. Seeing Dan's car the previous day had given him an idea. David's parents' cabin out in the woods was nice and remote, ghost free, at least up until two years ago when their last trip up there had been, and stocked with enough canned food to last him weeks if necessary. Since Dan wasn't using his car, he'd probably be willing to lend it to David for the couple of days he needed to get away.

A plan in hand, David roused himself. By being up and moving around, the pain in his shoulder became less noticeable and much more manageable. He was still going to down a few pills once he got home though. Pushing the chair back under the desk where he'd found it, he killed the light and opened the study room door.

A weak grey light filtered in through tiny rectangular windows near the room's ceiling high overhead. They revealed a bright cerulean sky outside, but the sunlight failed to pierce the deeper darkness of the room, leaving the bookcases as large shadowy masses rising out of the darkness on either side of David, without few other details discernable. Despite the shrouding gloom, David felt no fear. Rather than feeling like the dark was pressing down on him, he had a sense of serenity, almost as if he'd just stepped into a church. Glancing around, David couldn't make out anything that could account for the disconcerting sounds he'd heard last night. Taking a couple of steps forward, David triggered the motion detector, and with a clunk, the row of lights over the aisle he was in sprung to life.

The book cases towering over him appeared as ageless and unchanged as he remembered them, but there was something off. It took him a few moments to realize that all the books that had been perfectly arranged last night had been re-shelved upside down. No matter how far down the aisle he looked, or how far up the bookcase, even the shelves far above his head that would require a ladder for anyone to reach, not a single volume had been missed. Feeling a hint of the strangeness from last night return, David cautiously walked through the hallway created by the bookshelves back to the central corridor which ran the length of the room, back toward the stairs he'd come in through so long ago. 

Turning the corner around the bookshelf, he tripped the next set of lights, and in their glare, he saw that the next set of bookcases had also had their contents rearranged. This time all the books had been stacked horizontally, filling each shelf from top to bottom, giving the books the appearance of bricks. Despite the strangeness, David still didn't feel all that threatened by the weird arrangement of books, so his pace was steady, but sedate as he walked through the stacks. 

Row after row, each had been affected by whatever had happened last night. One aisle had all of its books flipped, so the unbound side was facing out, another had been rearranged so that the books ran from largest to smallest, another was ordered by colors of the books' spines. Still another was completely bare of books. They’d likely used to fill in the gaps in the other shelves.

Near the end of the room, in fact, close enough that the lights overhead were dimly reflected in the first of the marble steps leading up to the outside world, as the lights came on, David turned his head and found that he wasn't alone. Halfway down one side of the aisle was a tall, older human woman. She was wearing a light blue, or grey dress that stretched almost all the way to the floor. It had an old fashioned design, with a collar that rose almost all the way to her chin. Her dark hair was pulled back into a tight bun, and a pair of wire-framed glasses rested on her impressive chest, an almost unneeded golden chain running from the glasses' frame around her neck. In the crook of one arm she held a few books, with another grasped in her outstretched hand, just about to be shelved. Catching David's movement out of the corner of her eye, she paused and turned her head to regard him. She looked down on him from her tall height, her face betraying disapproving annoyance, as if she were examining the sole of her shoe after stepping into some filth.

Caught by surprise, David gave the woman a little wave and said, "Good morning," his voice husky and breaking a bit from having just woken up. The woman's eyes narrowed, and her frown deepened just a bit. With a smart snap, she set the book she was holding into place without breaking eye contact with David, and retrieved the next one from the pile in her arms. Noticing that the shelf she was working on was organized as normal, up until where she was standing, David glanced back the way he'd come and realized the enormous amount of work she had ahead of her. Feeling guilty, and a bit responsible, David smiled at her in embarrassment and gave her an awkward quasi-bow as he hurried on his way. The woman shook her head slightly before turning back to her work.

Practically racing up the stairs, David pushed the heavy door open and reentered the normal world. In the distance, echoing down from the library proper, he could hear muted conversations and the occasional burst of muffled laughter. He frowned as a thought struck him, and he turned back toward the room he'd come from. He watched as the lights turned off, one after another, including above the row that he'd seen the woman standing in. Just as he was wondering how she'd be able to see in the gloom, the spring attached to the door wrenched the door's handle from his hand, and the door slammed shut with a reverberating bang.

The loud noise shook David, and helped him recollect that he needed to be focused on what lied ahead, rather than being sidetracked by life’s little mysteries. Padding off down the hall, the marble cold through the holes in his socks, David quickly left the library, only receiving a dull acknowledgment from the bored student who was now manning the desk next to the entrance he ducked out of.

It was a lovely day outside, the air crisp, but the unfettered sunlight providing comfortable warmth. A refreshing breeze blew occasionally, causing the trees lining the college's walkways to sway, and scattering the dead leaves to and fro. There were a few other students out and about, but they gave David as wide a berth as he gave them as he made his way toward the alleys and lesser traveled thoroughfares that would lead him back home.

His phone was just about dead by the time he'd made it back to his apartment complex. Skulking in the bushes, his feet tortured by the greay mulch of years past, David peeked around the corner of his building. Becky's bike wasn't there, and there were no signs of life as far as he could see. Just a lone plastic bag pushed and pulled by the wind, making its drunken way across the parking lot. He kept watch for a good five minutes, well, maybe three. Anyway, more than long enough to make a cup of ramen, but the buildings stayed dead. No signs of any crazy stalker neighbors.

Stealthily sliding around the side of the building, David crept up the stairs leading to his apartment. It was only as he put his hand on the knob to his front door that he remembered that he'd locked it before leaving last time, and he'd left his keys back with the rest of his things at Dan's. Slumping in defeat against his door, David tried the handle anyway and without a hit of protest, the door swung open.

Feeling a bit tired of the bullshit he was having to put up with, David stood on the threshold of his apartment for a minute, running his eyes over the room before him. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. The lights were off, but thanks to the sun coming in through the various windows, there was ample ambient lighting to discern that the living room and kitchen were as he'd left them. He stared at the door leading to the unused bedroom, silently daring it to act up, but it remained inert, playing the part of a cheap, thin interior door perfectly. For some reason David was reminded of a cat exposing its belly. All cute and fluffy until it arbitrarily changes its mind and starts clawing your hand. Not really wanting to go inside, David sighed as he stepped past the doorjamb and into the apartment. 

He closed the door after him, debating a moment whether he should lock it to keep unwanted intruders out. But then again, it would slow down his retreat if those unwanted invaders were already inside. Opting not to throw the bolt in case he needed to make a swift exit, David nonchalantly climbed the stairs to his room. It too appeared normal at first glance. Nothing obviously out of place, and no one hiding in the corner, ready to leap out at him with a knife, or something. He did deflate a bit with a deep sigh when he noticed that the closet door was closed.

Putting that on the back burner, David made use of the restroom, taking stock of his bruises and abrasions after flushing the toilet. There were deep, dark bags under his eyes, and while the scratches on his arm hadn't grown any worse, now that he had access to a mirror he could see that there was a large purple and yellow bruise on his back from where he felt as if he'd been stabbed.

Popping a couple of pain pills, two round ones and one that was oblong, David fished a fast charger out of his desk drawer and plugged his phone in. He then texted Dan, "Hey, is it okay if I borrow your car for a couple of days?" Then dug his spare bag out from under the bed. He tossed a few odds and ends into it, then cast about for a few changes of clothes. Unfortunately, he quickly realized that all his clothes had been cleaned and placed in the closet. Sighing, he stood up and strode over to its door. He paused for a few long moments, his hand on the knob, trying to will nothing happening. That he was just going to open the door, like normal, pick up some normal clothes, and get on with his life. Turning the knob, David opened the door and his hopes were dashed.

Sitting on a pile of his clean clothes was a rabbit girl with long black hair, wearing a long, flowing white dress. Her red eyes peered up at David through her long bangs, and her mouth loosened into a smile showing a hint of her teeth. David closed the door, pulled out his cell phone, still attached to the charging battery, from his pocket, and dialed 911. It was time for someone else to help deal with this shit.

"911, what's your emergency?"

"Hi, uh, I've got, uh, someone who's broken into my apartment."

"I understand, sir. Are they still there?"

David watched as the knob to the closet began to turn, and firmly grasped it with the hand that wasn't holding the phone to keep it in place. "Yeah, they're still here." He gave the operator his address. "Please hurry."

"I've got a squad car enroute. Please stay on the line with me until they've arrived, sir."

"I'll try," David replied. The knob was turning back and forth, a bit more forcefully and the door shuddered slightly as the rabbit inside pressed her weight against it. The knob turned more forcefully in his hand and there came a pounding from the other side of the door.

"Is that the intruder?"

"Yeah, I've got them trapped in a closet right now, and they don't seem too happy about it."

"Is the intruder armed?"

"I don't think so."

"All right, hang tight, sir, officers should be on the scene any second."

"Good," David said as the pounding on the door grew in intensity and he had to lean his whole body weight against it to keep it in place. The knob was spinning back and forth so fast that the friction was starting to burn his palm. The blows grew heavier and heavier, far beyond what a waif like David had seen could produce. The whole door-frame shook from the impacts and David worried that the hinges might pop out soon. In an effort to keep the door closed, he tossed his phone away to grab the knob with both hands. He could hear the 911 operator saying something, with all the noise from the pulsating door, it was unintelligible.

In the distance he heard a new pounding coming from the front door.

"Come in, I'm upstairs," he yelled out.

Heavy footsteps pounded into his apartment, and as he heard the metal of the staircase leading to his bedroom creak and groan alarmingly under their weight, the assault on the door he was holding closed abruptly ceased. Two police officers wearing bulky body armor cautiously entered David's bedroom. "You the guy who called 911? reported an intruder?" The slightly pudgy tiger officer asked while the lanky, younger panther stared at David, one hand on her taser.

"Yes," David said, almost sighing in relief under the suspicious gaze of the cops. "They're over here, in my closet." The officers exchanged meaningful glances with one another before slowly moving further into the room. 

"Okay,” the tiger said, her hand moving to the taser on her belt. "Why don't you let go of the door, slowly move over to that corner, and we'll see what's behind the mystery door."

David nodded and slowly unclasped the door handle and moved over to the corner of the room the cop had indicated, keeping his hands visible, his movements slow and deliberate, and staying where the officer could see him.

Flanking either side of the closet door, the police officers once again gave each other a look, followed by a nod, and then the tiger reached down and slowly turned the knob and then threw the door wide open. The panther sprung into the closet, with the tiger hot on her heels, swiftly sweeping the small room. David shuffled a bit closer and anxiously peered after them, but he could see that there wasn’t anyone in the closet, other than the officers, save for the single unshaded light bulb dangling from the ceiling, swinging back and forth in an unfelt breeze.

The tiger started talking quietly into the radio on the shoulder of her vest while the panther holstered her taser and ambled over to David. "The closet's clear. You want us to check under your bed next?"

The other officer called out, "Lay off him, El." She walked out of the closet and over to David. "Listen, kid, I know it's been a tough time for a while, but maybe you should lay off of whatever you've been using to, uh, manage the stress."

David could only cradle his head in his hand, rubbing his forehead in frustration. "But she was there," he said, a bit plaintively, knowing he sounded out of his gourd. 

"Did she slip through the vents when we got here?" El asked from where she'd been casually examining the room.

El's partner gave her a stern glance before saying to David, "Look kid, if it'll make you feel better, we can do a quick search of your apartment, make sure that there's no one else here.

Already knowing the futility of such a search, David couldn't help sighing as he said, "Thanks, that'd be great."

He watched as the two officers began going through his room, peering into any space that a person could reasonably fit, beneath the bed, under his desk, even into the cabinets in the bathroom. Of course they didn't turn up anything, and a short time later, David trailed after them as they descended the stairs to the living room. They'd just begun riffling through the kitchen cupboard when there came a yell from the front door. "What the hell is going on!?"

Startled, David spun around to find Lou, the apartment manager rocking a thinning mullet, a tee shirt with an X over Van Hagar, a pair of frayed jorts, and about eighty more pounds than what would qualify him as obese. His hands were on his hips and he was giving David a death glare.

"Diamond Dave, you know the rules. You're supposed to contact the front office in case of emergency, and we'll call the authorities on your behalf if it’s necessary. I about had coronary sitting in my Laz-e-boy watching my Baywatch Blu-rays when a cop car I wasn't expecting went screaming by my window."

"Sorry, Lou," David said, actually feeling truly apologetic for having wasted everyone's time. It was painfully obvious that the authorities weren't going to be able to help him, and he'd only look insane, or high, if he kept pestering them for help.

El's partner broke off from their halfhearted search to explain, "We had a report of a breaking and entering, sir. We're just doing a routine search to make sure they're not still hanging around."

"Hey," El called from the corner next to the unused bedroom. "What about this door?"

David called out to her, "Oh, don't worry about that, it's always locked..." He trailed off as she easily turned the knob and pushed the door open.

"Locked, huh?" She said with a sardonic grin in David's direction. Her face fell and her muzzle wrinkled in disgust. "What's that smell?" Pushing open the door and flicking on the lights, she muttered, "What the fuck?"

Shooting a questioning glance at David, El's partner followed El into the unoccupied room. David trailed after them, Lou hot on on his heels.

Stepping into the room, David was hit by the smell of something rotten, but not a fresh rot. More like someone had taken a dump on the carpet and left it there for a couple of weeks. Scattered across the floor were several clumps of what he first thought was hair, grey and black. He only realized they were the desiccated corpses of rats when he turned and saw the small alter that had been made of their tiny little skulls, situated underneath some sort of symbol that had been scrawled across the drywall in streaks of dark burgundy, the other side of the wall from where his couch sat. Dried blood. Hopefully dried rat blood. The symbol itself was some sort of circle filled with geometric designs and what might have been letters in some strange language.

"Jesus Christ, Dave. The fuck is this?" Lou asked, whispering.

"I-I don't know. It wasn't like this a few days ago. Ask Becky, she was here. This whole room was empty then, normal. "

The more alert police officers had split up and quickly searched the connected bathroom and other rooms attached to the bedroom, and returned to where David was standing, frozen.

"Man kid, you and your friends have some fucked up hobbies," El commented, knocking over the mound of rat skulls with her boot.

Lou apparently had collected himself. Enough to return to his normal state of being. Angry. "Goddamnit, David. You know how much this is going to cost to clean? No way in hell you're getting your deposit back now. Hell, I'm going to have to contact the owner and see if they don't want to kick you out after pulling a stunt like this."

"It wasn't me," David said desperately, pleadingly. "Ask Becky. She was with me, and the door's been locked ever since we came in last, I swear." If there was one benefit of having an obsessive stalker, they could at least provide you an alibi.

"Who's this Becky?" Lou asked.

"The neighbor downstairs. Giant dog, just moved in, rides a motorcycle? That Becky!"

Lou regarded David for a few seconds uncertainly, almost pityingly. "Dave, my man, you're the only tenant in this block of apartments. Trust me, if you had a neighbor, one who paid their rent, I'd be doing cartwheels in the parking lot. But the last one moved out three weeks ago."

David simply stared at Lou as he felt a sinking feeling pulling his entire frame down, accompanied by a surge of tingling electricity up his spine. "No. You're wrong. She's my neighbor, she lives in the apartment below us."

Lou shook his head. "Listen, kid -"

David closed the distance between them and frantically grabbed Lou by his shirt. "No, she's downstairs. She has to be."

"Whoa, whoa, let's calm down," El’s partner said as she moved in between David and Lou, her bulk easily breaking them apart. "Look, why don't we all just go downstairs together and see if this Becky is actually there and if she is, get her statement."

Lou shrugged, brushing his wrinkled t-shirt back into place. "Yeah, sure, why not. I could do with some back rent." David stayed silent, the sinking feeling in his gut falling further and further. His steps were leaden as he fallowed Lou and the officers out of his apartment.

They trooped downstairs and up to the door of the apartment below David's. Lou fumbled with the massive ring of keys he kept attached to his wallet's chain, and after a little while he found the appropriate key. Turning it in the lock, he swung open the door and they all stepped inside.

The air was stuffy with a faint hint of mildew. Dust danced in the mottled light coming through the blinds. The living room, the whole apartment, was still and empty, save for a dusty old couch centered in the room, facing a blank wall. David could feel his knees going week, and he stepped back outside as the officers and Lou walked through the empty apartment. Collapsing on the cement stairs, he rested his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. What the fuck was going on? Was it all in his head? Was he going insane? Had she even been real, or was she a figment of his imagination? Did that mean the ghosts and all the other shit he'd seen were products of his deranged mind too?

Those thoughts and others like them were swirling through his mind as the police stepped out of the apartment, followed by Lou, who bent and re-locked the door after them.

"Well, this was a nice way to waste some time before going on break," El said as she sauntered past David, heading toward the patrol car parked nearby, its lights still silently flashing.

El's partner stopped in front of David and leaned down to rest a hand on his shoulder, causing David to look up at her. "Listen, son," she said with a sigh. "Like I said before, it's been a tough time for everyone, and everyone has their own way of dealing with the stress. It's okay not to be okay. If you need help, there's always someone out there who's ready to listen." She handed David a card. On one side was the number to a suicide prevention line, on the other was the number for one of the local churches.

David couldn't help the wry chuckle he let out. "Thanks." The tall tiger clapped his shoulder and walked back to the patrol car without a glance back.

Lou shuffled past David. "Expect to hear from me soon about your lease, and I'm serious about the cost of cleaning that shit up coming from your deposit."

"Okay, Lou," David said disinterestedly. Tired, he rested his head against the warm metal railing.

Lou gave him a worrying look before sighing and shaking his head. Muttering to himself, he waddled off across the parking lot.


	9. Chapter 9

Staring up at the perfectly blue sky, David sighed. It was all so tiresome. It felt as if a monumental weight were pressing down on him, sapping away all his strength. He just wanted it all to be over. No more surprises, no more scares, no more terror filled nights. He just wanted to run, run so far away, that he could look back on all of this and laugh, if he ever bothered to think on it again.

With another bone weary sigh he stood up. Giving what he’d thought as Becky’s apartment a baleful glare, he reluctantly climbed the stairs to his home. He found the front door still open, and the creepy unused room’s door closed. They’d probably shut it behind them as they’d left, right? Well, who the hell cared? Dismissing the closed door from his thoughts, David trudged up to his room. The closet was open and there was no sign of anyone or anything lurking inside.

Retrieving his phone from the floor where he’d flung it, the 911 operator having hung up long ago, David saw that his batter was already half full, and that he’d received a text. Unlocking his phone, he found that it was from Dan. “Sure. Spare key in a magnet, driver’s side wheel well.”

Elation coursed through David, and he didn’t try to hold back his grin as he quickly typed back, “Thanks bro. Your a lifesaver. Let me know when your coming back 2 skool. I’ve got some crazy stories to tell you man, especially about your apartment.”

Not bothering to wait for Dan’s reply, which was just as likely to come in two minutes as two days later, David tossed his phone and its charging batter onto the bed and grabbed a change of clothes from the closet. Initially he was leaning toward one of the piles the ghost girl hadn’t been sitting on, but then a burst of confident bravado caused him to pick up the very shirt she’d been perched upon.

Taking a shower felt like it might have been pushing things. Being naked and wet just felt like it would leave him very vulnerable in close proximity to all the supernatural bullshit that had been happening. Instead, David shucked off his tank top and shorts, applied some deodorant, then pulled on a black shirt with a cracked and faded Levi’s logo along with a pair of jeans. A wet washcloth for his face, and a swish of mouthwash later and David felt like a new man. One ready to take on life’s challenges and boldly face his fears by running as far and fast away from them as Dan’s car and his emergency ten dollar bill would take him.

Shoving a few sets of clothes into this backup bag and slipping on his old shoes, which were just as stained, but smelled a lot less like puke than he remembered, David scooped up his phone and tied on a plain black cotton mask. He shot downstairs and out the front door, not bothering to see if the door closed behind him, much less whether it was locked or not. He held his head high as he power walked across the parking lot. Who cared if Becky was out there looking for him? If she even really existed, David was about to skip town and there wasn’t anything she could do to stop him. The entire time he waited for the bus, as well as while riding it through an innumerable number of stops where no one got on or off, David was filled with a nervous energy urging him on, faster and faster. He imagined it was similar to what an herbivore felt when it spied a predator out of the corner of its eye.

The bus ride to Dan’s part of town felt like it took forever, but it was still early afternoon when David found himself walking up the same street he’d fled down what felt like ages ago. In the clear light of day, it looked like any other ordinary neighborhood. Sure there might have been a bit more garbage accumulated along the street curb, and the buildings were a bit more run down, most of the doors marked by the outlines of numbers that had fallen off long ago than actual numbers, but all in all, it was just an average, perfectly normal neighborhood. There wasn’t anything to betray what had happened to David the night before, to prove that it had been anything more than a fevered dream on his part. At least, aside from the scratches that could have been self inflicted and the pain in his back that could be explained away by an exposed spring in Dan’s couch.

Dan’s apartment appeared identical to its neighbors. A battered and dented front door tightly closed, probably locked, all the windows opaque due to tightly drawn venetian blinds. Who knew what lay behind all those near identical doors, those purposeless windows. Maybe all the apartments were dark and empty, or maybe there were people inside, living out their perfectly ordinary lives, or maybe there was something else inhabiting those still and silent rooms, watching, waiting.

David wasn’t too thrilled with getting so close to Dan’s apartment after the previous night. He gave the front door a wide berth as he furtively walked up the drive to Dan’s car. Refusing to turn his back on the possible danger, he kept his eyes on the apartment door as he reached under the driver’s side wheel well and grimaced as the road grime of ages past flaked off in his hand as he groped around. A few seconds of blind flailing later and he was rewarded with a smooth plastic box that seemed almost pristine compared to the rest of Dan’s car. Undoing the box’s latch, David pulled out the car key and took his eyes off Dan’s apartment long enough to find the door handle and the key hole. Unlocking the car, David jerked his head back around to make sure nothing had taken advantage of his lapse in scrutiny to leap out of the apartment and scare the bejezus out of him. All was quiet on the western front.

His eyes slid over to the window where the blinds might have just moved ever so slightly as he squeezed into the driver’s seat, breathing in the smell of Dan’s car, sun-baked vinyl, mildew, and stale Red Bull. The heavy weight of the car’s door was reassuring as he slammed it closed. Slipping off his bag, David was about to toss it over onto the passenger’s seat when he realized that it was already occupied by the backpack he’d abandoned in Dan’s apartment the night before.

David froze. His heart began to race and his adrenaline began it’s all too familiar spike. His eyes locked onto his backpack and with hesitant reluctance, he reached out to it. He paused, his hand halfway to the bag and took a second to glance into the backseat. Other than a few loose Taco Bell wrappers on the floorboard, it was empty. Swallowing thickly, David finished reaching over and opened the bag. 

What greeted him first was the shirt he’d used as an impromptu towel last night, soaking up whatever it had been dripping down from the apartment above. The shirt had been cleaned and neatly folded, without a hint of whatever liquid it had been absorbing. Hesitantly at first, but then more and more rapidly, David began digging through the bag and found … nothing. Well, actually he found a lot of things, but it was all his things. Nothing was out of place. His spare clothes, his keys, his wallet, his laptop, his chargers, they were all there, neatly tucked inside, everything in its right place.

For several minutes, David sat there contemplating his wallet in his hand. Other than being somewhere it shouldn’t have been, it appeared completely unmolested. He glanced again toward Dan’s apartment. Still closed tight. He checked the back seat again. Still empty. Feeling discombobulated, David pocketed his wallet and slid his bags down to the passenger footwell. He entered the address of his parent’s cabin into gmaps and wedged his phone into the ashtray. Cranking the ignition, after a few false starts, the car’s engine turned over and thrummed with a steady rhythm. David pushed in the clutch and threw the car into reverse with a screech of grinding gears. Nearly ramming into the curb on the other side of the street as he backed out of the driveway, David was able to navigate to first gear and after a few jerky hesitations, he was on his way. It had been a while since he’d last driven, but he figured it was basically like riding a bike.

A little while later, as he was passing the city limits, the feelings of strangeness he’d experienced due to the appearance of his bag fell away and he felt a sense of relief. He was doing it, leaving all the craziness behind. Just him, the open road, and a pair of cassettes rattling around under the stereo. Taking his eyes off the road momentarily he found that one was the best of Gary Numan, the other was the Eurythmics’ ‘Sweet Dreams.’ Feeling jubilant, David shrugged and popped the Gary Numan tape into the player. As the synthline began to kick in, he started to sing along, “Here in my car ...”

He made good time, his ability to shift through the gears becoming ever smoother as the afternoon progressed. But night was falling earlier and earlier. Especially in the wooded foothills he was passing through. There had only been half a tank of gas when he’d begun his journey, so a short time after the sun set, David pulled into an S-mart gas station. He’d run through the Gary Numan tape a couple of times already, so ‘Sweet Dreams’ was blaring through the car’s crackling speakers as he came to a stop next to one of the gas pumps.

David put the car into neutral and turned the ignition off, but the car kept running. With a frown he turned the key back and forth a few times, but the engine shrugged off his suggestions. With a shrug of his own at the personality poorly maintained older cars seemed to develop, David climbed out of the car and began operating the pump. He was pretty sure he had enough cash left in his bank account to cover it. Glancing furtively toward the S-mart door, he saw a few hyenas hanging around and didn’t feel comfortable walking into the store to pay with cash.

As the gas flowed into the car, David kept his head on a swivel. Out of the car, he was feeling a bit exposed and wanted to make sure that nothing was creeping toward him out of the shadows around the gas station. Thankfully the night was quiet. The only oddness coming from a woman in a new crossover who’d pulled into the pump behind David, who for some reason was staring at him angrily. The pump handle clicked, indicating it was finished, so David paid her no mind. He returned the handle to the pump and waited long enough to make sure the transaction finished before he slid back into Dan’s car, the pounding chorus of “Sweet dreams are made of these ...” welcoming him. As he wrapped his hands around the wheel, he thought to himself that it was true. With a car, you can go anywhere. Pulling out of the parking lot, he turned onto the narrow state highway that would lead him deep into the dark mountains ahead.

A couple of hours and several increasingly depopulated roads later and David turned off onto the long gravel drive that led up to his family’s cabin. The land around the cabin had been cleared decades ago when the building had initially been built. Since then, it had been maintained once or twice every few years, so there was a sizable amount of undergrowth between the dense trees and the weathered wooden sides of the cabin. Leafy green weeds poked up through the loose pea gravel that made up the driveway as well as the parking area in front of the cabin. This far away from civilization, the only illumination was provided by David's headlights and the nearly full moon overhead.

David brought the car to a stop, this time successfully managing to turn it off first try. Dan's car was too old to have lights that continued to work while the engine was dead, so as soon as the car was stopped, the whole area was plunged into darkness. David wasn't too concerned though. It was a comfortable darkness, he'd spent months of his life in these woods, and they felt like a familiar friend as his eyes adjusted to the moonlight.

Grabbing his bags, David didn't bother locking the car as he crunched across the gravel and onto the small, slightly warped porch that dominated the front of the cabin. His laziness was a family trait, with his father being just as adverse to putting himself out as David was, which was why he'd long ago keyed the locks to the cabin to match those to the family home. So, using his house key, David easily unlocked the front door and pushed it open.

A wave of warm, pine scented air washed over him, bringing back a sense of nostalgic longing. Taking a step over the threshold, he raised his hand to flick the light switch, but nothing happened. He toggled it up and down a few times, but the lights stayed off. It wasn't too surprising, it made sense that his parents would put a hold on paying the utilities for a house they weren't actively using. There should be a massive quantity of candles and lanterns in the kitchen pantry, so it really wasn't a big deal at all.

David pulled out his cell phone and turned on its flashlight. Its beam revealed the cabin's dusty living room. It was shaped like an L, running the full length of the cabin before turning to open into a hallway that led to the kitchen, bedrooms, the single bathroom, and out a rear door straight into the dense woods, toward a path that led down to a creek that had grown narrower every year David had visited. There was a thick runner that ran down the center of the living room, the rest of the floor was made up of thick, stained oak boards. The room was full of worn furniture straight out of David’s childhood. Off to the left was a couch turned to face a cold soot stained fireplace. 

Standing still for several minutes, David played his light over the room, reminiscing over summers past, when the room was full of sunlight and his family's laughter. There was the heavy wooden table he'd fallen against and cut his forehead on, prompting a trip to the emergency room two towns over. There was the threshold that had an exposed screw he'd stepped on while running. He still had the scar. Over there was the bookcase that had fallen on him when he'd tried climbing it, nearly crushing him to death. So many memories.

Thankfully the room was unchanged from the last time he'd been there. There was a security firm sticker on the window in the door, but there wasn't any actual security system, so it was always a possibility that someone had broken in and ransacked the place for meth money, but it looked like his luck was holding out and no one had made a visit since he and his parents had last left. 

Dropping his bags next to the front door, David headed further into the room, aiming to retrieve a couple of lanterns from the kitchen and then maybe start a fire in the fireplace, and then figure out which canned meal would taste best warmed on the hearth. Even walking on the carpet, his steps rung out in the silence of the house, the floorboards creaking and groaning under his weight. He'd reached the end of the living room and had just turned to enter the hallway leading to the rest of the house, when there came a loud crash from the kitchen. It sounded as if someone had pulled out the entire silverware drawer and thrown it to the ground.

Tensing, thoughts of a meth fueled hillbilly running through his head, David stood still, waiting for the sound of someone else moving. In the light from his phone, out from the black portal leading into the kitchen, a can slowly rolled. It was a can of ravioli, bearing the friendly image of a wolfess wearing a white chef's hat and outfit. The can rolled to a stop in the middle of the hallway, rotated itself ninety degrees, and began rolling again, this time toward David. It rolled up the slight ramp into the living room, hoping over the transition before coming to a gradual stop, gently bumping against his shoe.

Nope. Fuck this.

Keeping his light aimed toward the kitchen, David started backing up toward the front door.

From behind him came a familiar voice. "You know, David, you should really check over a vehicle before you operate it." David closed his eyes and sighed as he recognized Becky's dulcet tone. He turned around as she continued. "You never know what problems there might be with the engine, or how worn the tires are, or what might be in the trunk."

Opening his eyes, David found Becky standing in the front door, turning her head back and forth as she pulled an arm behind her back, stretching it until a popping sound echoed through the room. She was wearing a black turtleneck, black jeans, and a black pair of running shoes.

"Why are you here, Becky?" David asked quietly, with a forlorn voice.

Ignoring his question, Becky stepped into the cabin, her eyes glowed in the moonlight as they roamed over the dusty furniture. "This is a nice place you have. Perfect for couple looking to get cozy together."

Some steel entered David's voice as he asked, "Who the hell are you Becky, why are you so interested in me? Why have you been hanging around, following me?"

Becky paused, one hand resting on the back of the sofa as she contemplated the unlit fireplace. "Who am I? Well, I’m just someone who’s always wanted to help people," she said quietly, contemplatively. "That's why I joined Protective Services. I just wanted to help people." She trailed off for a few seconds, her gaze distant as she looked back through the years of her life. "I was assigned to a ... specialized department after I'd joined, one that dealt with special cases, like yours, where vulnerable people faced abuse. Not malicious abuse, but just a frequent rate of heavy injury." She turned toward David with a wry smile. "You'd be amazed how many young boys and men there are out there who not only don't take care of themselves, but actively pursue self destructive risks and behaviours. So many that some fall through the cracks. I remember the first time I found one of them, the forgotten ones, lost in the shuffle of paperwork, and I realized that the only way to keep him safe was to lock him away in a safe space." She let out a bitter, wry laugh. "He didn't understand. None of you ever understand. I don't do this out of spite, or because I enjoy it. I do it because I care about you. He just kept resisting me, and things ... well, things got out of hand. They always get out of hand."

She held her hands out in front of her and stared at them as if seeing them for the first time. "I don't know why it always turns out the same way. I just want to help them, save them, make sure that they're never hurt again, and yet in the end I'm the one who ends up hurting them. I don’t know why. I don't know what it is that compels me to do these things. I wish I could figure out how to stop." She looke at David and shook her head sadly. "But I just can't."

Holding the hand that wasn’t holding his phone out slowly, placatingly, David said, "Sure you can, Becky. You can stop anytime you want to. In fact you can stop right now. Just turn around and walk out that door. I'll give you the keys to the car, and you can drive away, go wherever you like, just like that. Easy peasy."

Becky closed her eyes and lifted her head, smiling sadly. "You just don't understand, David. If I'm not here, you'll just keep getting hurt again and again. Like your shoulder for instance. I saw those scratches. Who gave them to you? I can take care of them, make sure that they never hurt you again."

David glanced down at his arm. It was covered by his shirt sleeve, and he wondered just when it was that Becky had seen his wounds. Movement out of the corner of his eye alerted him that Becky was moving again. Looking back up, David saw her striding quickly toward him and he lifted the cell phone in his hand. Becky's eyes flicked toward the phone and the she lunged at him, grabbing his wrist in her large calloused hand. Her voice no longer held a hint of sadness. Rather it sounded almost joyful. "That trick won't work again, Davie."

His wrist was being squeezed in her vice-like grip, but David was still able to move his thumb enough to hit his phone's emergency button. It was a feature that would run through his emergency contacts until one of them picked up. He hoped that the cell service out in the woods had improved since he'd been there last. The phone dialed the first number on the list, Dan's, and through the phone's speaker they could hear it begin to ring. A second later there rang out in the cabin the distinctive chorus from Eazy-e’s 'Nutz on ya chin.'

Becky used her free hand to pull a phone out of her pocket. It's case was scratched, the screen cracked, and it looked like there was a piece of asphalt embedded in one corner, but it was still recognizable as Dan's phone. David had been afraid ever since he'd seen Becky in the doorway, but seeing his friend's cell phone in her hand caused the world to drop out from under him and he felt like he was in free-fall.

"Whoops," Becky said. I guess I don't need this anymore. She threw Dan's phone to the ground and there came an audible crack as it bounced off the hardwood floor. The ringing stopped, and its screen went dark. Putting pressure on the joints in his wrist, Becky reached over and plucked the phone from David's hand. With a beautifully efficient movement, like a major league pitcher, she threw the phone across the room. It slammed into a solid wood wall and David could hear it breaking into dozens of pieces that scattered across the room. 

With Becky momentarily distracted, David kicked off the ground with both feet, attempting to kangaroo kick her. Dealing her more surprise than damage, Becky let him go and David stumbled back, turning to run toward the hallway leading to the rest of the house as well as the cabin's back door. He made it a couple of steps before he felt the collar of his shirt jerking him back. He spun around from the force pulling him on him, and a large, furry fist impacted his cheek, snapping his head back and causing him to see a shower of bright pinpoints of light. He could taste blood in his mouth and after a moment, feel it dripping down his chin.

The blow knocked him to the floor, and desperately, David tried to blindly crawl away, but his foot was caught and another heavy blow came down on his back, causing him to shout in pain and collapse for a second. Realizing that if he didn't get away, things were only going to get worse, David kicked out at the hand holding his leg, knocking it away, affording him the opportunity to try and get up to bolt. He'd only made it to his hands and knees when there came a fierce kick to his stomach. It drove him against the wall and knocked the wind out of him. Dazed and struggling to get his breath back, David just laid there crumpled on the floor.

"Why do you make me do these things to you?" Becky roared out as she grabbed him by the collar and spun him to face her. A fist struck him in the eye, causing his head to bounce off the wall and for his ears to ring. "Why can't you understand?"

David sobbed as his lungs finally began working right again. Weakly he held his hands out in front of him to ward off her blows."Please. Please, stop," he begged.

Through bleary eyes, David could see Becky pause, one hand grasping his shirt, the other cocked behind her ready to punish him again. He could see the tension in her shoulders drop and the hand that had been balled into a fist came down to softly caress his cheek.

"I'm sorry, David. I don't mean to do these things. It's just ... they just happen. I don't know how not to do them anymore." Her hand dropped lower, to his neck, and the one that had been balled into his shirt came up to join it. She began to gently, yet insistently put pressure on his throat. "Don't worry, David, it'll all be over soon. It's going to be okay. No one's going to hurt you anymore. Not even me."

Dazed and confused, David tried to pry her hands from around his neck, but he couldn't wedge his fingers under hers, much less pull them off. Desperately he pleaded, "Please. Please. Plea-"

The steadily increasing pressure forced him into silence. Becky loomed above him, squeezing tighter and tighter as she said, "I'm sorry, David. I'm so sorry. But it's going to be over soon. It's going to be okay. It's going to be okay. Everything's going to be okay, you'll see."

His lungs were screaming for air, but he couldn't seem to muster up any strength. He could only stare into Becky's face and watch as her eyes filled with tears. They welled up and overflowed, running down her muzzle until they began falling down onto his cheeks. Dimly David could feel their warmth as they slid down his own cheek. Then, the pain wasn't so bad. His lungs were still burning, and he was feeling lightheaded, but all that just felt distant, like someone else's problem. There was a black ring around his vision, and Becky looked farther and farther away, like he was falling backwards into a deep, peaceful well. Absently he noticed a flash of white behind Becky's shoulder. But that didn't matter. Nothing mattered anymore.

The next thing David knew, he was drawing in deep gasps of air. His esophagus felt like someone had poured gasoline down it and lit a match. The pain was excruciating every time he breathed, but that didn't stop him from gulping down oxygen like it was the sweetest thing he’d ever tasted.

Slowly his faculties returned to him and he realized he was curled up against the wall of the cabin, his head in the crook of his arm. Above the sound of his own shaky breaths, he could hear the grunts and meaty smacks of someone engaging in a fist fight. Pretty much his whole body was radiating pain, so it took him a few tries to bonelessly flop himself upright, leaning heavily against the wall.

The room was a mess. Several pieces of furniture had been knocked over, and the carpeted runner had been knocked askew. In the center of the room Becky was exchanging blows with the skull faced horned creature from David's dreams.

It was an incomprehensible sight, and David simply took it in, his brain accepting it without trying to reason through what exactly it was he was seeing. Becky was obviously a trained fighter. She was shifting her weight, adjusting her stance, her fists held at the ready while she looked for an opening in her opponent's defense. Her opponent on the other hand seemed to fight like a beast, with no form or finesse. Just pure strength. It was just as David remembered from his nightmares. Tall, even taller than Becky, it's head a fleshless bovine skull from which sprouted two deer-like antlers that ended in a profusion of points. It was wearing a black robe or some shapeless piece of cloth which hid most of its body from view, but the arms that were revealed as it fought were long and made up of pure sinewy muscle. It's fingers were impossibly long and seemed to act more like knives than anything else. Becky was covered in scratches that attested to their sharpness, one along her forehead that was causing her to squint from the blood falling into her eye, and several that were revealed through rips in her shirt.

It was different from other fights David had watched. Those had been noisy affairs with the combatants cheered on by the audience. This was almost completely silent, save for the heavy breathing coming from Becky and what sounded like angry growling coming from the skull faced thing as it repeated swung a blow at Becky, only for it to be dodged and the mastiff to dart in and deliver a blow to its body or head. Both sides seemed to be shrugging off whatever damage they'd received as they continued circling each other through the remnants of the living room.

It was obvious that the skull faced thing was growing exasperated with its inability to land a solid blow on Becky. It's movement became faster, it's punches and attempts at grabs more hurried and less precise. Becky meanwhile continued to dance and weave around the taller creature's attacks, taking only glancing blows at best as she darted in and out, jabbing at the monster without landing a solid blow of her own. If they were fighting for points, Becky would be solidly in the lead. 

Giving out a bellow of frustration, the skull faced thing crouched and attempted to grab Becky's leg, but the canine skillfully dodged and used the opportunity to grab the creature by the antlers and use that as leverage to deliver a hearty kick to the monster's center of mass. The skull faced thing was pushed back a few steps across the room, and with a loud snap, one of the antler points came off in Becky's hand. The skull faced creature gave out what David assumed was a pained and pissed off shout. It actually was only barely in the range of human hearing, but he could feel the force of the sound in his chest.

With a burst of speed, the creature lunged forward and grabbed Becky by the face. With a single arm it lifted her up and slammed her through a glass end table. Becky groaned and rolled around in the millions of pieces of crushed grass, struggling to get back up to her feet, but the creature grabbed her by the hair and then, with a firm grip on the back of her head, slammed Becky's face into the glass covered hard wood floor.

Becky let out an enraged scream and she squirmed, trying to get away, but the creature slammed her face into the floor again. Then again, and again, and again. The first few times, Becky continued to yell in anger, then she began to moan as her struggles tapered off. Then she stopped making any noise at all. Still the creature continued to slam her face into the floor until the sound had changed from solid blows to squelching meaty impacts. Finally, with one last grinding motion, the creature left Becky face down on the floor, a dark pool spreading from her head.

Crouched over Becky's body, the creature turned toward David, and a new wave of terror energized him. However before he could muster up the strength to get his legs to cooperate and get him the hell out of there, the creature closed the distance between them and slammed a clawed hand into the wall next to his head. Using its other hand, it reached out a razor sharp finger and lightly, gently traced a path down David's cheek, along his neck, and down his arm. It felt like someone had taken the back of a kitchen knife and run it across his skin.

Trembling in fear, from this close, David could see that the thing did actually have eyes. They were just deeply recessed in their sockets, and their sclera was black. He couldn't tell what color they were in the dim moonlight, but he could tell the irises were firmly locked on him. 

Eventually the thing's finger stopped on David's still wrapped dislocated hand. It pressed down and David felt a sharp pain just above his thumb. Looking down at what the monster was doing to his hand, he saw it gently using two of its claws to pull the dingy binding off. Once his hand was fully unwrapped, the thing ran a claw along the symbol Tanya had drawn so long ago, then tucked the dirty bandage into the depths of its black robe. Then it rested its hand on David's head, as if patting a family pet.

Abruptly it stopped and cocked its head toward the nearby hallway as if it had heard something. It stayed that way for a few heartbeats, and then turned to look at David again. It lowered its hand to his shoulder, and gave it a couple of claps, as if in encouragement, then it pulled itself up to its full height. Soundlessly it turned around and began walking to the front door. Along the way it bent down and grabbed Becky by the ankle. It dragged her along behind it, leaving a trail of blood and splinters of glass in its wake. Becky might have made a gurgling sound when they'd made it to the porch and her head bounced off the step down into the gravel, but David didn't want to think about it too deeply. He watched as the creature dragged Becky off into the impenetrable woods in the distance.

David felt weak, and in pain, so much pain. He let it roll over him as he sat slumped against the cabin wall, staring out the front door at the moonlit gravel, yet not really seeing anything at all. He wasn't sure just how long he'd sat there, waiting for his aches to diminish, but he was broken from his reverie by what sounded like the outraged scream of a mountain lion.

It sounded like it had come from just behind his head, causing David to jump and slowly totter into a standing position. Though he was slouched over, holding his aching ribs from where Becky had kicked him. It didn't really make them feel any better, but it did feel like it was the least painful upright position he could manage. The back door, which was straight down the hall from where David stood, flew open with a crash forceful enough that the topmost hinge came loose and the door slumped at an odd angle.

Unlike the moonlit scene out the front door, the back door was much closer to the dense underbrush that surrounded the cabin. There was no light in the oppressive darkness that it revealed. David was reminded of the darkness from his closet, the almost taunting, absolute darkness.

Slowly, but with a dreadful inevitability, as if crawling out of a grave, David could see a now familiar head of long black hair rising. He couldn't see its face due to the length of the thing's bangs, but he could feel its eyes spearing him. A bone grey arm, all sinew and loose, dirty fur, shot over the threshold and its sharp fingernails dug into the floor, leaving furrows as the thing clawed its way into the cabin. "Davie," the creature hissed, the word sounding as if it had been pushed through teeth clenched in incensed fury.

Fear is a wonderful motivator, David found. Mere moments ago he'd been contemplating whether he could summon the energy to curl up into a ball until he felt less like dying, and now, his adrenaline pumping, he barely felt his aches at all as he rushed out of the cabin, nearly slipping on the pool of blood on his way out. Regaining his balance, he ran across the gravel toward Dan's car, it's trunk still wide open. He threw open the driver's door, and dug through his pocket for the key. His hand shook as he desperately stabbed the key toward the ignition, his eyes locked on the cabin's yawing door.

In his fumbling attempts to get the car started, he somehow dropped the key and heard it dully thud onto the floor mat. With a panicked desperation, he leaned down and began fumbling around on the mat, searching for the elusive piece of metal. Eons passed, but he finally found it and straightened up in time to see the thing walking through the front door of the cabin. Perhaps walking was a strong term. It moved as if the world were a movie with a few frames missing, jumping forward and backward in the same breath.

David slammed the key into the ignition and turned it. The car’s engine sputtered for a panic inducing moment, then turned over and roared into life. The thing was illuminated in the headlights, all black hair and white dress. David slammed the car into reverse and even though the open trunk obstructed his rear view mirror, he hit the gas, causing the tires to spin and shoot gravel in all directions before they bit in and shot him down the gravel drive. Hitting the road with a bone jarring thud, he spun the car around and missed first, going straight to second the abrupt transition caused the trunk to slam down and secure itself. He put his foot down hard enough that the tires squeal and the car shot down the road. In his rear view mirror he could see the thing standing at the foot of the drive, staring after him. The glow from his tail lights dyed its dress scarlet.


	10. Chapter 10

David’s eyes were glued to the rear view mirror long after the thing had disappeared into the distance behind him, leaving only the dark road and the skeletal branches of the trees overhead. He finally started to allow himself to relax when he passed the first car going in the opposite direction several minutes later. It’s blinding headlights letting him know he wasn’t alone in the world. Ignoring his aches and pains, David tried to figure out his next moves. He still wasn’t sure how to process what had just happened back there, but the important take away was that the thing that had chased him out of Dan’s apartment not only wished to do him harm, but was mobile, and coming after him. That put a crimp in his strategy of just running as far away as he could. It seemed that no matter how far he ran, it would find him and probably try to kill him.

Dan was dead. 

He’d deal with that later.

His pool of friends dwindling, and really only knowing one person who could possibly help him with this supernatural problems, David pointed the car back toward college and Tanya. Lacking gmaps, he had to rely on road signage to point him in the direction of the major interstates that would take him home. As he left the mountains and returned to civilization, David began to let his guard down, allowing the pain and weariness to win out over his panic and flight response. However, every time he was on the cusp of no longer feeling wary, he’d see something out of the corner of his eye that would make his heart leap into his throat and his adrenaline to sky rocket. 

A black shape in the back seat, reflecting in his rear view mirror for a moment while another car went by, only for nothing to be there when David’s eyes recovered from the glare and he looked again. Something by the side of the road, illuminated for a split second that could have been illegally dumped refuse, or something crawling along the ground. A fetid breath in his ear when he turned his head to check if the lane next to him was open before merging. All through the hours long drive back, David couldn’t relax at all.

The sun hadn’t quite risen by the time that David, hunched over the wheel of Dan’s car as if expecting to be struck at any moment, from any angle, rolled back into town. He really didn’t want to return to his apartment and see what awaited him there until he’d dealt with whatever it was that was following him around. Even with Becky gone, he didn’t feel safe there anymore. He didn’t feel safe anywhere really. He needed to get to Tanya. Whatever she’d done with the bandage had helped him, probably. At least that was David’s assumption as to why the skull headed thing hadn’t eviscerated him after dealing with Becky. Tanya might not know the answers to David’s problems, but she probably knew someone who did. Hopefully.

The trouble was that it wasn’t quite dawn, and Tanya was a college student. That meant that it was either unbelievably early, or late for her, and it probably wouldn’t endear him to her good graces if he showed up on her doorstep looking like a reject from a George Romero movie first thing in the morning.

He should definitely have made more friends in high school and college. Maybe joined a frat. Then he could have dragged all them into whatever this shit was that he was involved in, and it wouldn’t have been so bad. Misery loves company. Or, maybe it would have been worse, with more victims at the thing’s mercy, but at least there would have been someone else he could depend on rather than having to put all his problems on the nice girl he kind of liked.

But life doesn’t turn out the way you want it to sometimes. 

The least he could do was to let her sleep for a bit longer though, David thought to himself as he pulled into an all night waffle purveyor. He parked in the most well lit parking space he could find, in clear view of the restaurant’s large windows he was starting to develop a real phobia about the dark. Not bothering to lock the car, he rolled out of the driver’s seat and shuffled toward the entrance. Inside, he found the normal college town derelicts, the drunkards and the coke heads, one of whom was yelling belligerently, if not intelligibly, at the back of the cook behind the counter. No one was wearing a mask, so David didn’t feel so out of place since somewhere along the way he’d lost his. 

The frumpy waitress who was watching the scene between the stoic cook and the upset patron play out with tired eyes, turned and took in David’s appearance as he made a beeline for the restroom. “Bathroom’s for customers only,” She said, with a snap of her gum.

David searched himself for his wallet, pulled out a couple of rumbled bills and slapped them down on the counter. “I’ll take a coffee, thanks.” Without waiting for anyone else to interrupt him, he rushed to the bathroom and locked the door after him.

The pale, scared looking tweaker in the mirror was a far cry from the David of yesterday. His lips were cracked and the bottom was split thanks to Becky. The lower half of his face was covered with stubble, dirt, and dried blood. His left eye was swollen, blackened in patches that promised a spectacular bruise in a day or two. Already it was getting hard to open. His hair was sticking out in every direction possible, and it wasn’t visible, but he could feel a large bump on the back of his head, hot to the touch from where it had bounced off the wall. Around his throat there were parallel bruises obviously from large anthro fingers throttling him.

His shirt was torn, nearly falling off, due to the rip from the collar to the sleeve from when he’d been jerked around by Becky. His pants … well, actually his pants were doing all right, all things considered. There were a couple of patches of dust, and a splash of blood near the cuff of one leg, but other than that, they were holding up rather well. All in all he looked like the poster boy for a domestic violence ad.

Deciding that it would be easier to tell people that he had fallen down some stairs and into a doorknob rather than that he’d just been in a fight for his life with a stalker slash possible serial killer and some sort of cryptid, David turned on the weak flowing sink and began wetting some of the highly nonabsorbent paper towels he’d pulled from the nearby dispenser. He cleaned off the blood and the dirt as best he was able, and ran his wet fingers through his hair until it looked less terrible. There wasn’t much he could do with his clothes, even with the resources available to him in a public restroom, so he tried to act nonchalant as he opened the door and returned to the restaurant proper. Maybe people would think it was a fashion statement.

Not much had changed in his absence, other than the guy who had been shouting angrily at the cook, was now outside, shouting angrily at a campus police officer. For a moment, David considered taking his problem to the police again. Then thought better of it. They’d probably dump him into a detox tank for a few days and call it job done. What would he tell them exactly? A woman no one else seems to have ever seen before showed up at his family’s remote cabin, where she beat him until a monster from the woods showed up and murdered her, then a very pissed off ghost, demon thing showed up and chased him off? Look, there’s the bloodstain from where I totally didn’t kill someone. Yeah, no. Who knows what would happen to him if that … thing showed up again, when he was locked up and unable to run away.

Turning his back on the spectacle outside, David sank onto the cheap vinyl covered stool in front of the counter, where a cup of coffee was now sitting, a dark red lipstick mark on one side of the rim.

David looked up at the waitress, who gazed back at him with placid hostility, her mouth moving rhythmically as she chewed her gum. David ducked his head and turned the side of the cup with lipstick away from him and began to nurse the burnt, watery coffee.

He’d made it through three cups, and had watched most of the other denizens of the dinner sober up enough to leave under their own power, or be encouraged by the burly cook during his break to head somewhere else, and for a new crowd of breakfast seeking low income workers arrive. He’d grown used to the disapproving frown the waitress had been shooting him all night, but the cook was beginning to look his way as if he’d undergone a metamorphosis into some sort of giant bug, and David had the feeling it was about time for him to go.

He dumped the change in his pocket on the counter as a tip for the wonderful service, and wandered out into the parking lot. It took a considerable effort to unfold his stiff muscles off of the stool, but where there’s a will, there’s a way. The sun was higher in the sky outside, but it was still much too early for David’s tastes. He hoped that Tanya was a morning type of goth as he settled into Dan’s car and brought it rattlingly to life.

The drive through the early morning, blinding sun was thankfully uneventful, almost peaceful in fact. In a matter of minutes, David was parking Dan’s car in one of the many unused visitor spots in front of Tanya’s dorm. The security gate was still propped open with a cinder block, and the normally locked lobby door swung open at David’s touch. There were a couple of people sitting around the common area, their heads bent over something, but none of them gave him a second glance as he walked over to the elevators and hit the button to summon them. 

Listening to the whirring of machinery as the elevator descended, David noticed out of the corner of his eye, through the glass of a security door, a tall black figure standing unnaturally still at the end of a long, otherwise empty corridor. But David decided it probably wasn’t in his best interest to acknowledge whatever it was. Probably just a water pipe or something like that. Nothing that he needed to turn his head and focus on. Definitely not some sort of creature standing there, motionless, soundless, just staring at him with eternally unblinking eyes hidden behind a curtain of coarse black hair.

The elevator doors opened in front of him with a happy little chime, and David practically collapsed in relief into the small space beyond, repeatedly stabbing the button for Tanya’s floor with his finger until the elevator’s door closed in a blissfully unhurried manner. Soft muzak was playing which did nothing to calm down David’s suddenly elevated heart rate. Within a few seconds, the elevator slowed to a stop and merrily dinged again as it opened its doors wide. 

Hesitantly, David poked his head out and peered in either direction down the hallway. Ascertaining that it was clear, with no sign of any hippos, and warding off the elevator doors which tried to delicately decapitate him, David stumbled out into the corridor and over to the door with two construction paper cutouts in the shape of books labeled Emily and Tanya. With his good, well, better hand, David rapped smartly on the door.

From within, he heard muffled cursing, the creak of a bed, and the rustle of cloth. After some fumbling, the door was opened a crack and a sleep disheveled Tanya blearily peered out at him, her mane sticking out in all directions, her face appearing more youthful without its usual dark makeup. From behind her came a high pitched whine, “Tell that fat cunt to fuck off. It’s too early for this shit.”

Tanya blinked at David in confusion. “Dave, is that you? You look like shit.”


	11. Chapter 11

David couldn’t help letting out a bark of awkward, nervous laughter. “Heh, yeah. I know. Sorry for waking you up, Tanya, but I could really use your help. A-a lot of things have happened, and, well, I think you’re the only one who can help me.”

Her eyes quickly shedding their grogginess as she took in David’s appearance, Tanya more closely examined David, and frowned in worry as she asked, “Did that Becky lady you warned me about do this to you?”

Rubbing his arm, David replied, “Actually, yeah, but she’s not what I need your help with. She’s, well, she’s not going to hurt anyone ever again. But, there’s been a lot of supernatural stuff that’s been happening to me, and it’s been getting worse, and I just need to make it stop somehow before things escalate even more.”

A voice range out from inside the room. “Jesus Christ! If you’re going to flirt with your boyfriend first thing in the morning, do it someplace else! Some people would like to get their sleep!”

Tanya glanced behind her and then back at David. “Listen, give me a second, kay?” He nodded and she closed the door as he stepped back and slumped against the cinder block wall, taking a moment to rest his weary eyes. A few minutes later, Tanya quietly opened the door again, and with the air of a teenager sneaking out after curfew, slipped through the opening, nearly silently closing the door behind her. She was wearing jeans, a Misfits tee shirt, a jack-o-lantern smile face mask, and no make up. She had run a comb through her mane, but it had obviously been a rush job. Her black hair streamed down her back, several errant strands giving her something of a wild vibe. David though she looked beautiful. 

She tossed him a bundle of cloth that he only barely managed to catch after belatedly realizing that something was flying at him. Unfolding it he found a black tee shirt with the words “Caligari’s Home Improvement: Appliances, Sinks, Cabinets, and more” along with a mask bearing a frowning panda, and a black towel. “It looked like your wardrobe was a little worse for wear. That shirt is a bit big on me, so hopefully it’ll fit you okay. Unfortunately we don’t wear the same size pants, or I’d lend you a pair too.” David swallowed a joke about it being too soon for him to get into her pants, distracted as she reached out and softly brushed his hair back. She winced in sympathy, her ears folding back slightly, as she more closely examined his bruised eye. “Man, she really did a number on you, huh? I’m going to go grab a first aid kit. They boys’ floor is the next one down. You can use the bathroom down there to clean off some of that dirt. Then we can talk over what’s been going on with you, okay?”

“Can’t I just use the one up here,” David asked, almost whiningly, not wanting to be by himself again so soon. “We’re college kids, right? I mean, it’s almost in our job description to break the rules.”

“Sorry,” Tanya replied the corners of her eyes crinkling up slightly in a smile. “Girls only. I’m already walking a fine line with you being up here, but if our RA found you in the bathroom? Well, to be honest I’m not sure what she’d do, but I really don’t want to find out.”

David frowned pitifully, his shoulders slumped. “Okay.”

“Hey, what kind of nurse would I be if I let you get a staph infection? Just take a couple of minutes and wash up, then come back up here and meet me in room 516. No one’s using it and the lock’s broken. It’s a bit early in the morning for anyone to need it for a booty call, so we shouldn’t be disturbed. You can tell me all about what’s been going on while I try to patch you up.”

A bit less morose, David said, “Okay.”

Tanya gave him a reassuring squeeze on his shoulder before heading off down the hall. David watched her go for a few seconds before he walked in the opposite direction toward the stairwell. He figured the stairs would probably be quicker than the elevator, and he really wanted to minimize the amount of time he spent alone. Thankfully his short trip down the steps was uneventful and he easily found the male floor. Unlike the women’s hallway, which smelled a bit like a bouquet of artificial flowers and fruits, the guys’ hall had a funk that hit you in the face when you opened the door. Sweat, B.O., and a cloud of Axe spray.

David walked down the corridor as if he belonged there, passing several rooms, most of them closed, a few open and occupied, but the residents didn’t give him a second glance. Eventually he found the bathroom by following the flood-like puddle spreading from the door out into the hallway. Inside it was fairly standard, some sinks, some urinals, some stalls, a changing area, and a couple rows of naked shower heads protruding from the wall. There were some hooks and frames for shower curtains, but the curtains themselves had been torn down at some point. There was a guy already in the room, dressed in jeans, a polo, and a pair of vans. His hair was disarrayed and there were deep bags under his screwed shut eyes. He was standing in front of one of the sinks, holding onto it as if here were on a tossing ship, his face was drawn, rocking back and forth. David ignored him and went about his business. 

Pulling his shirt off hurt. His range of movement, especially when it came to lifting his arms over his head was severely limited due to his shoulder acting up again. But David eventually was able to free himself from his cotton prison. His pants were much easier to shuck off. In the depths of the towel Tanya had given him he found a bar of charcoal soap. Black, obviously. That caused David to grin a bit, despite his pain. The dorm proved to have excellent water pressure, which helped to numb the pain as the hot water pounded down on him. David had been apprehensive going off on his own, but now that he was under the spray of the shower, he was finding it difficult to want to leave. But he had miles to go and promises to keep, so he lathered up the black soap and washed away the blood and grime covering his skin, drifting away a bit as the soothing water pounded down on him. He came back to himself when the water abruptly chilled to ice cold for a few seconds, causing him to jerk back to alertness. Hastily he shut the spigot and groped his way back to his towel.

As David dried himself off, he noticed that the guy from earlier had decamped from the sink, but there was a retching sound coming from one of the stalls. It sounded like a too much tequila kind of puke. David missed when his days were so simple. Feeling refreshed, and a bit less in pain, David gathered up his things, tossing his old torn shirt in the garbage on the way out of the bathroom.

Stepping into the hallway, he noticed that the light at the far end of the corridor had failed, leaving it a dark void, the bright exit sign not really providing any illumination, so much as a foreboding red warning. Without breaking stride, or even giving it a second glance, David turned in the opposite direction and availed himself of the staircase at the other end of the hallway. He sprinted up to Tanya’s floor, rushing out of the stairwell and down the hallway, almost passing room 516 in his hurry. As Tanya had said, the lock was broken and the handle turned easily. Opening the door he found a room much like Tanya’s, except without any hint of occupancy. The walls were bare, as was the window. The desks were empty, and the plastic wrapped beds on either side of the room were unencumbered by sheets or blankets. In the bright morning light, it felt stark and cold.

There was a first aid kit laying on top of one of the mattresses, but no sign of Tanya. Experiencing a burgeoning sense of unease, David stepped deeper into the room to see if maybe she was just out of sight behind one of the empty wardrobes. Stopping by the window, David reached the inescapable conclusion that there wasn’t anyone else in the room with him. No one behind, or in, the wardrobes. No one under the beds. That was fine, perfectly fine. Maybe Tanya had forgotten something and had just run out to fetch it. There wasn’t any way the ghost that was following him around had popped out and dragged her to Hell, right?

Nervously, David tossed the still damp towel over the back of one of the chairs, and then jammed his thumbs into his pockets and tapped his fingers on his thighs as he paced the narrow space between the beds. From time to time he’d glance out the window since there wasn’t much else in the room to help occupy his attention.

The room faced the parking lot David had come in from. Far below there were a couple dozen cars, including Dan’s, clustered together near the dorm’s entrance. The rest of the enormous black top was empty. Across the vast, underutilized lot was a couple of former dorms that had been converted into office space for the university’s faculty and staff. There weren’t any cars parked near those buildings. Likely due to the fact that most of the staff had been furloughed and the professors were working from home via Zoom. Kind of backwards, the students living on campus while in order to attend virtual classes. 

Idly, David watched as some students walked out of the dorm below him toward their car. A fairly nondescript guy and two feline women of some sort. Judging by their similar build and markings, the two were probably related. The guy must have called shotgun because he slid into the passenger seat as the two women had a quick game of rock-paper-scissors. The winner slid into the driver’s seat while the loser climbed into the back. As their car pulled out of their spot, David’s gaze followed them until they turned a corner and disappeared around the side of the staff building directly across from the dorm.

Without something moving to attract his attention, David let his eyes wander across the facade of the building. Something called his focus. A flash of light, or a burst of motion. He wasn’t sure what, but it drew him to more closely examine the windows of the opposite building. Unsure of what he’d seen, it took him a while to search the many panes of glass. Having formerly been a residence hall, the offices on both sides of the building were situated directly across from one another. That meant that if the doors on both offices were open, it was easy to see daylight through the windows, while if one of the doors was closed, the window was opaque, dark with disuse. It took him a bit of searching, but eventually he found what he thought had attracted his attention. In the office directly across the parking lot from the room he was standing in, the light coming through the window was darkened, as if someone were standing perfectly still in front of the open door. David took a step closer to the window to see if he could get a better view, when the door behind him opened, painfully loud in the viscous silence that had settled over the room. 

“Sorry about that,” Tanya said as she stepped inside. David turned to find that she was holding a plastic bag as she came in. “I rand down to the kitchen to pick up a few things. Sit down over there,” indicating the bed the first aid kit was resting on, “And hold this against your eye, but not too hard.” David glanced quickly back at the building across the way, but he wasn’t able to find the obstructed window again in the couple of seconds it took him to slowly settle onto the mattress.

“Thanks,” he said as he accepted the package of frozen peas wrapped in a thin dish towel that Tanya was holding out to him. The cold ache he felt as he pressed the peas against his swollen eye initially caused him to grimace, but soon the cold numbness overcame the discomfort. Pulling a bottle of water and a familiar little white bottle from the plastic bag, Tanya shook out a couple of pills and handed them to David before opening the water and passing it to him once he’d popped the pills into his mouth. The water was cold, and it burnt its way down his ravaged throat with a painful, but refreshing intensity. “Thank you,” he gasped out while waiting for the pain to subside. 

“So, black eye, bruising on your neck, where else are you hurt?” Tanya asked, her tone objective and professional as she pulled one of the desk chairs to sit on front of David, dropping the plastic bag next to the first aid kit. This close, David could faintly smell her strawberry body wash.

He took a moment to catalog his various aches and pains before replying, “My throat, my shoulder, again, my stomach, pretty much everything, really.”

Leaning in, Tanya ran her fingers along David’s throat, causing him to flinch. “Well, your neck is definitely bruised and probably a little inflamed. But there’s no broken skin and your ear isn’t glued to your shoulder, so there’s probably no significant spinal damage. Unfortunately the best treatment will probably just to let it heal normally. Now then, let’s get your shirt off so I can examine the rest of you.”

David grimaced. “Do we have to? I mean, I just put it on, and it was kind of a struggle.”

Tanya leaned back in her seat, giving David an even look as she sighed through her nose, her warm breath hitting David’s face. “You know, not to brag or anything, but most guys wouldn’t hesitate to get undressed for me.”

“And under normal circumstances, I’d jump at the chance too,” David assured her. “It’s just that it’s painful to raise my arms up too far. If it were up to me, I’d be as undressed as you’d like. Probably more than you’d like, really.”

Tanya smirked and rolled her eyes before reaching down and hooking her fingers under the hem of David’s shirt. “Here, I’ll help you. Don’t worry, baby, I’ll be gentle.”

“Promise?” David asked, a bit more than a little earnest.

She didn’t reply as she gently coaxed him into leaning over. In short order, and with only a bit of pain, David was soon topless. The air in the room was a bit chilly on his bare skin and David shuddered a bit as Tanya ran her hands across his torso. She pulled out sanitizing wipes and cleaned the angry looking cuts on his shoulder from Dan’s apartment, as well as the various scratches and abrasions he didn’t remember receiving. A few well placed bandages and bandaids later and she was finished dressing his cuts. She lightly pressed on his lower ribs eliciting a gasp from him. “Looks like your ribs are bruised. They’re not broken, but you should probably go a bit easy on them for a few weeks. So, what’s the story behind all this, and what did you mean about that woman not being able to hurt you again? You didn’t beat her over the head with a candlestick in the drawing room, did you?”

David’s attempt at a smile aborted before it really managed to materialize. He took a moment to gulp down some more water as he prepared himself to tell his story. Slowly, haltingly, and with several backtracks and pointless tangents, he told her his story. How he’d gone to Dan’s apartment, how he’d been attacked and chased by some sort of ghost. About Becky, how he’d met her, how their relationship had started out well, but then gone to hell. How he’d felt cornered and just wanted to get away. What had happened at the cabin. Dan was dead. Who Dan had been and how they’d been friends since high school. By the end of it, David had run through his bottle of water, the morning was well advanced, and he felt as if he’d spoken more about himself and revealed more of his vulnerabilities and insecurities than he ever had before in his life.

Tanya had for the most part let him get it all out, only interrupting occasionally to ask for a clarification on one point or another. After David’s words slowed to a dribble before petering to a stop, leaving out most of his trip back from the cabin, he sat there, staring at his lightly clasped hands. They were both silent for several long moments as Tanya mentally digested everything David had said. She summed up her thoughts with an eloquent, “Holy shit.”

“Yeah,” David wearily agreed.

“The hell did you do in a previous life to get karma this bad?” Tanya asked as she passed David’s shirt back to him and helped him lift his arms up enough to slip it on. “A psychotic serial killer, a possible skin walker, a predatory hungry ghost … that’s, that’s pretty fucking far out there, Dave. Way beyond anything I can deal with. I think we need to ask the high priestess of my coven, Cassandra, for help.”

David made a double take before pursing his lips and cocking his head questioningly. “Coven? I mean, I didn’t want to stereotype you or anything, but you mean like sacrificing things, worshiping Satan, cursing your enemies, and all that kind of thing?”

Tanya scoffed and shook her head in disbelief. “Its not like that at all. That’s just a harmful image perpetuated by popular media. We’re Wiccan, not Satanic. We pay tribute to the natural forces of the world and are granted power by them. We don’t do sacrifices or anything like that. Mostly we get together a couple of times a month and perform rituals in the woods. It’s kind of like a barbecue or potluck, just you know, with a sacred circle there too.”

Seeing how deep Tanya’s frown had become, as well as her defensive position as she crossed her arms in front of her, David apologized. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to be offensive. It’s just, I mean, you’re the first witch I’ve known, I guess. So I don’t really know how any of this stuff works.”

Visibly mollified, Tanya uncrossed her arms and leaned closer toward David. “It’s okay. It’s just that there are so many people who don’t understand, or even want to try and understand, and they just lump all the neo-pagan religions together and make fun of us for being different.” She let out a deep breath out of the side of her mouth, which caused some of her loosely combed mane to flutter. “Anyway, Cassandra’s been a witch longer than I’ve been alive, and she’s friends with a lot of other coven leaders across the country. I’m sure she can help us.”

David felt his unknowingly tense muscles relax. It felt so relieving to be told that not only did he have a valid problem, but there was someone out there who could help him solve it, and he could entrust it to their capable hands. “That’s awesome. How soon can we go see her?”

Tanya worried her lip with her large, flat teeth as she turned her eyes away in thought. “It might still be a bit early in the day right now. I’ll message her and give her a bit of background on all the crazy shit that’s been happening to you and see when we can meet.”

“Great,” David said, his eyes closing of their own accord. With the tension flowing out of him, his exhaustion was hitting him like a ton of bricks.

Seeing him start to literally nod off, Tanya said, “Hey, from what you said, it’s been a while since you slept, right? Why don’t you lay down here for a bit until we can go meet Cassandra. I’ll put a sock on the doorknob so no one will barge in.” She started up from the chair she was sitting in, but David’s had shot out of its own accord and grabbed a corner of her shirt.

“Don’t go,” he said, almost pleadingly. He realized what he’d done after a second, and clarified. “I, uh, I really don’t want to be alone right now. Especially when I’m asleep. I’m just … I guess, I’m just scared. Please stay with me.”

Tanya’s eyes moistened as they looked down at David. “Okay,” she said softly as she settled back onto her chair. 

“Thank you,” David said as he slowly laid down on the mattress, mindful of his injuries. Despite there being no pillow or blankets, he felt more comfortable than he could remember being in a long, long time.

Pulling her phone from her pocket, Tanya began typing away on it. As David was drifting off, she looked up from her phone and met his quickly closing eyes. “Don’t worry, I’ll be here.


	12. Chapter 12

A gentle shaking of his arm accompanied by a quiet, “Hey, Dave, wake up,” roused David from his dreamless slumber. Blearily he opened his still aching eyes, the bruised one didn’t make it quite as far as the other. He found himself on his back, looking up at Tanya’s concerned visage as she leaned over him. He had to fight back the urge to ask her, “Why the long face?” opting instead to inquire, “How long was I out?”

“A couple of hours,” Tanya replied, holding out a hand to help David sit up. He gratefully accepted her assistance, although he accidentally almost pulled her down on top of him before managing to sit upright. “I’ve been texting Cassandra and gave her a brief run down of all the shit you’ve been going through. She said that she’s ready to meet you whenever you’re feeling up to it.”

His brain kicking back into gear, David said eagerly, “That’s great. Let’s go, what are we waiting for?”

“Well, if you don’t mind, I need to stop by my room for a minute to freshen up. I was going to go while you napped, but someone wanted me to watch them sleep like some sort of creep.”

“Sorry,” David said, feeling a bit abashed. “And thanks.”

Tanya’s eyes were warm as she smiled down at him. “Anytime.” She leaned down and held David by the elbow as he worked his way up to his feet. “Besides, you’re kind of cute when you’re quiet. Like a big, sweet, snoring baby.”

“I don’t snore,” David said with only slightly feigned shock. “Do I?”

Tanya’s smile grew, revealing her teeth. “How would you know? You’re asleep.” Her fingers were still cupping his elbow and they were standing only a few inches apart as they stared deeply into each other’s eyes for a few long seconds. Shaking herself, Tanya pulled her hand away from David and took a small step back, biting her lip as she looked down at the floor. Noticing the plastic bag at their feet, she bent and collected it, along with the first aid kit. As she did, David could see a slight pink glow beneath the white stripes on her cheeks. “A-anyway, we probably should get going, so I’ll just be a second.”

“Yeah,” David agreed, already missing the warmth of her touch. “Don’t want to keep your ...” he trailed off, drawing a complete blank for the proper terminology.

“High Priestess,” Tanya supplied.

“Right, that. Don’t want to keep her waiting.”

With a rueful shake of her head and a good-natured roll of her eyes, Tanya said, “Anyway, wait here, I’ll be right back.” She slipped out of the room and David listed to her footsteps as they faded into the distance.

Still feeling tired, but enormously less anxious, David took the opportunity of being left to his own devices to stretch and try to work out a few of the kinks that had crept up on him over the past several hours. After a few satisfying spinal cracks, he crossed his arms and leaned against one of the desks. Closing his eyes he tried to clear his mind of thoughts and do a bit of meditation Stanley had tried to teach him years ago. He’d never really gotten the hang of it, but it had helped him calm and center himself a bit the few times he’d felt the need to try it. To that end, it felt like a better use of his time than dwelling on all the negative things that had been hounding and happening to him.

Unbidden, the memory of Becky’s mangled remains being dragged off into the forest popped into his head and David frowned. He tried again to clear his mind. Somewhere in the building he could hear someone running a vacuum. It reminded him of hanging out at Dan’s, back before college, playing video games in the basement while Dan’s mother puttered around upstairs. He could practically smell the musty aged concrete and aged spilled soda. It was strange. At the time, life had seemed so shitty, being stuck in a hick town without much in the way of future prospects, or female attention. But, looking back on it, David couldn’t help but remember those times with fondness. Maybe in some far off future he’d look back on this moment with a similar sense of nostalgic longing. No, that was a stupid thought.

David’s inner reflection was interrupted by the sound of the door opening and the reappearance of Tanya. She’d tied her hair back into a low ponytail and had donned a black denim jacket. A pair of stud earrings pulled her ears down a bit closer to her head. “You ready to go?”

“More than ready,” David said as he pulled on his mask.

Tanya held the door open as she ducked out and checked the hallway. “I think I hear Tiffany, our RA, moving around in her room. We should probably take the stairs.”

With a dramatic flourish, David said, “Lead the way.”

They hurriedly walked the short distance to the stairwell, and as the heavy steel fire door closed behind them, David and Tanya shared a conspiratorial grin, and for no real reason at all, broke out in laughter. They were still grinning as they began descending the well worn metal steps. When they reached the next flight though, Tanya slowed down. With a slight frown she turned her head to look back at David. “Do you hear that?”

Puzzled, David cocked his head and strained his ears, but honestly answered, “No, what did you hear?”

Tanya came to a complete stop and held her hand out to stop David as well. When she did, David became aware of just what it was Tanya had heard. Just a second out of time with their steps, from the stairs just above their head, another pair of footsteps came to a halt. Both Tanya and David looked up at the beige painted stairs before exchanging a troubled glance with one another. A bit more hesitantly then began to descend the staircase. Half a moment later, the other steps started again.

As they descended the stairs, unconsciously David and Tanya sped up, and the footsteps behind them sped up as well, driving them in turn to speed up even more. They were still walking down the first flight, then power walking by the second. Above them, the steps sounded just a bit further down the staircase than before. By the third landing Tanya and David had broken out into almost a jog. The steps following them were now sounding from the flight just behind them, coming just a bit faster than the pounding of their own. David and Tanya were flat out running by the last flight of stairs, and whatever was behind them was crashing down the steps hot on their heels.

Reaching the bottom floor, Tanya turned away from the wooden door at the foot of the steps leading back into the residence hall, opting instead to use the handrail as a fulcrum to spin toward the heavy metal door marked “Emergency Exit Only: Alarm Will Sound.” David followed after her, and despite the ominous warning, there was no siren as they crashed through the door and into the crisp autumn air beyond. 

The heavy spring on the door caused it to snap shut as they stumbled to a halt, both breathing heavily, Tanya’s tail twitching in agitation, her ears perked up and completely vertical as she stared at the door. David was leaned over, his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath. For several long seconds there was complete silence, but just as their breathing began to slow down, there came a loud crash against the metal door. A dent appeared in the top half, as if someone had struck it with a sledgehammer. Two more loud bangs rang out, causing Tanya to flinch, and two more dents near the bottom of the door appeared. After a moment, there came a cold, slow scratching sound, as if someone were dragging the point of a knife across the surface of the door in one long arch.

Having recovered himself, David stood up and grabbing Tanya’s hand as she stared, transfixed, at the door, he said, “Let’s go.”

Tanya didn’t look his way, she continued to stare at the door in disbelief. “But ...”

“Come on,” David urged her. “I don’t know what that is, or was, but I don’t think I can deal with it. We need to get to your high priestess, right?”

Shaking herself and coming to her senses, Tanya cut her eyes between the door and David. “Yeah, I guess. I guess, you’re right. We should, we should go.” Pulling her unresisting hand, David guided Tanya around the side of the building and to the parking lot.

It was an otherwise beautiful day. Far off on the horizon there were some grey clouds looming, but above them the sky was a clear blue, and the rustling of the wind passing through the leaves provided a pleasant background music. David led Tanya to Dan’s car and unlocked it, holding the passenger door open for her after checking to make sure no one and nothing was lurking in the back seat. She still seemed a bit rattled as she slid into the passenger seat, staring ahead vacantly. Just before closing her door, he said to her, “Hang on a second, I need to check something.” He walked around to the rear of the car and after steeling himself, opened the trunk.

Thankfully it was empty. Save for some protein bar wrappers and what he hoped were bottles of Gater-aide. No one waiting to pop out at him. Satisfied, David closed the trunk and walked to the front of the car and slid into the driver’s seat.

“What was that about?” Tanya asked him as she buckled himself in.

“I heard somewhere that it was a good idea to check a car before driving it, just to be sure.” David started the car and after backing out of the spot and making a three point turn, asked, “So, where to?”

David had expected they’d be heading to an abandoned farm house in the middle of no where, or maybe a dilapidated Victorian era house on an overgrown street corner. However, following Tanya’s directions led them to one of the residential areas of the town, a subdivision that was neither all that old or all that new. It was fairly typical, winding intersecting roads and cul-de-sacs lined with the same three or four houses differentiated by the color of their front door and the contents of their gardens. All the lawns were neatly mowed, here a relatively new car was parked in a driveway. If it were back when children were allowed to and encouraged to play outside, David could easily see a pickup game of baseball happening in one of the quiet streets. However, there was no sign of anyone outside. It felt as if a neutron bomb had gone off, leaving behind all these perfectly maintained belongings, but spiriting away the owners.

They turned down one of the cul-de-sacs, identical to all the others, and pulled into the empty driveway of a single level ranch style house situated between two other identical houses evenly separated by a couple meters of carefully maintained yard. A much calmer Tanya announced, “We’re here,” as she unbuckled her seat belt after David had brought the car to a stop.

Rather nonplussed by their surroundings, David let out a somewhat unenthused “Yay,” as he followed her out of the car and up the short cement path to the front door.

Tanya pressed the doorbell and David could hear a series of ascending and descending notes from inside. A few moments later there was a rustling and the front door opened, revealing a relatively short middle aged cougar wearing high waisted jeans, a slight muffin top bulging out over her belt line pushed out her flowing blouse slightly. She was wearing a pair of thin black plastic glasses and had a profusion of rings on her fingers. The plastic bangles on one arm matched her rather clunky earrings. “Tanya, so good to see you,” she said loudly as she leaned up and embraced Tanya in a hug.

“Thank you for seeing us so quickly,” Tanya said from her position wrapped in the older woman’s arms.

“Of course,” Cassandra said as she gave Tanya one last squeeze before letting her go and turning to face David. “And you must be the poor boy himself. Please come in, both of you.” Turning back to Tanya, she studied the younger woman’s face more intently as she held open the door for them. As David followed Tanya inside, Cassandra said, “My dear, is everything all right, you look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Tanya ruefully laughed as she kicked off her shoes in the entryway, placing them neatly next to a tiny pair of pink slip-ons adorned with plastic daisies. “I think I just did. We were chased, by … something on our way out of my dorm.”

“Oh my,” Cassandra said as she locked the door behind David, who was busy taking his own shoes off and setting them next to Tanya’s. No one else was wearing a mask, so he pulled his down around his neck. “How exciting. Terrifying, I’m sure, but exciting. Come in and tell me all about it,” she said as she clasped Tanya’s hands and pulled her deeper into the house.

From the eggshell white walls to the beige carpet bearing fresh vacuum tracks, to the immaculately placed throw pillows on the cream couch in the living room they passed, the house appeared stereotypically suburban, not at all what David had been picturing what the abode of a certified witch would be like. There was a peculiar scent in the air that David couldn’t place, but it smelled as if it had more likely come from someplace as mysterious as Bed Bath and Beyond than anywhere else.

Cassandra led them into an immaculate open concept kitchen, complete with a sign saying “live, laugh, love,” hung up on the tile backsplash next to the stove. They gathered around the kitchen’s island, perching on the barstools surrounding it. Before sitting down, Cassandra asked, “Before we get started, would either of you like some coffee, or maybe something stronger? You look like you could use it dear.” 

“Just coffee would be great, thank you,” Tanya said.

“I’m fine with coffee too,” David chimed in.

Cassandra hummed to herself as she began to putter, and in a matter of minutes, they were all seated with mismatched mugs in front of them holding coffee doctored to varying degrees with milk sugar, and other additives. The scent coming from Tanya’s cup reminded David of a snickers bar. He gratefully wrapped his hands around his own mug, enjoying its warmth.

“Now then,” Cassandra said, turning to David. “As I’m sure Tanya’s told you, my name is Cassandra, and you must be David, right?”

David nodded. “Yes ma’am.”

With a pout, Cassandra said, “Please call me Cassandra, David. Being called miss, or missus, or ma’am just makes me feel old.” She reached out and gave his arm a pat before lifting her coffee close to her mouth. “Now then, Tanya’s let me know a bit about what’s been going on with you, but it sounds like there’s much more to the story. I hope you don’t mind going into a bit of detail?” She smiled in amusement. “I always find the devil is in the details.”


	13. Chapter 13

Bracing himself, David mulled over his words carefully. Thanks to his earlier conversation with Tanya, he knew how not to tell his story. With his previous rambling and non-sequiturs in mind, he organized his thoughts and did his best to relate the things he’d experienced in a roughly sequential manner. He began with the disquieting feelings he’d had following his motorcycle accident, the first time he met Becky, how the fleeting feelings and snatching of things possibly glimpsed escalated and began materializing in the real world. He spent a great deal of time going over what exactly had happened at Dan’s apartment. Cassandra asked him question after question about the smallest detail. Honestly, he couldn’t remember most of them to her satisfaction, his memory of the night overwhelmed by the ghastly face that had been pressed so close to his own and the waves of horror it had sent coursing through him.

One thing he didn’t share was who Dan had been, or what had happened to him. She didn’t need to know that.

By the time they finished going over and over what had happened at the cabin, David was on his fourth cup of coffee and starting to feel the beginnings on a caffeine headache coming on. His foot was rapidly taping against the barstool’s footrest as the vivid, gruesome scenes that had occurred only hours before played through his head again and again. He’d just finished describing what he’d seen in the rearview mirror as he’d driven off, for the third time, his eyes focused on the flecks in Cassandra’s marble counter top, searching for faces and figures in their randomness, when a black and white hand reached across the counter and laid itself over his. “Hey, are you dong okay, Dave?” Tany asked with concern, her piercing eyes meeting his as he looked up from the table.

“Yeah, I just … I, uh, yeah. I’m fine. I think the aspirin’s wearing off though,” he replied as he ran his unoccupied hand through his hair.

“It has been around four hours,” Tanya said. She turned to look at Cassandra. “You still keep your tylenol in your bathroom, right?”

Cassandra nodded. “Yep, should be on the second shelf of the vanity. Don’t mix it up with the bottle of little blue pills next to it, or we might have an interesting afternoon.”

Tanya awkwardly chuckled as she stood up. “I’ll try not to.” She gave David’s hand one last squeeze before letting go, making a detour to place her coffee cup on the counter next to the sink on her way out of the kitchen.

As they listened to her steps fade into the depths of the house, Cassandra turned back to David, her smile gone, but she had an air of innate superiority to the situation that seemed to preclude her from anything like fear. “So, it seems that you’ve been living through some interesting times, David. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone encountering so much activity in such a short amount of time. What you’ve described is simply remarkable, beyond anything I’ve ever imagined. There must be something driving it all, some sort of catalyst providing the energy these beings need to manifest and interact with our world. If we can identify what this catalyst is, I bet we could figure out a way to control it and get all these disturbances to … quiet down.” 

“That’d be wonderful,” David said with a sigh of relief, slumping down on top of the table. It was comforting to be able to rely on an expert who knew what they were doing.

Cassandra rested her chin between her thumb and index finger as she pondered something for a few seconds. Coming to a decision, she glanced up at David. “Tell me, would you be up for a little, well, would you be willing to participate in a ritual with us? I think it would help us identify whatever it is that’s acting as a catalyst for all of this if you are.”

“Yes!” David unhesitatingly agreed. “Whatever you need. I’ll do anything to get rid of all this crap that’s been happening to me.”

Her lips curling into a satisfied, almost smug smile, Cassandra’s eyes sparkled as she said, “Excellent. That’s just the kind of enthusiasm I appreciate in young men such as yourself.”

Before David could begin to feel too uncomfortable with the way Cassandra had phrased her words, Tanya returned, bearing a familiar plastic bottle. Cassandra stood up as she entered the kitchen. “I’ll be right back, dear,” Cassandra said to Tanya as she passed by her, giving her shoulder a light pat as well. “I need to give Susan a call. We’re going to do a divination today.” She glanced at the clock on the microwave. “And we’re going to have to be a bit quick about it. Jenny gets home from school in a couple of hours, and Jack will be back just after that.”

Tanya perked up on hearing the news and there was excitement in her voice as she asked, “Are we going to do the abridged version in the living room, or …?”

Cassandra turned her head to consider David for a moment. “No, I think the situation calls for the complete ritual.”

Practically skipping in place, Tanya said, “I’ll get the candles and everything else ready then!”

With a gracious smile, Cassandra said, “Thank you, I’ll just be a minute.”

She disappeared into the hallway leading to the rest of the house and David stood up, walking over to place his cup on the counter next to Tanya’s. Wordlessly he accepted the bottle of pills she handed to him, as well as the glass she’d plucked from a nearby cabinet. “So,” David said as he filled the glass with water from the faucet. “This divination thing, it’s not going to hurt or anything, is it? I mean, like you said before, I’m sure all these paranormal shows are bullshit, but they’re all pretty consistent when they say thins like Ouija boards are bad.”

Tanya smirked and patted his chest reassuringly as David chased a couple of pills with water, nervously maintaining eye contact with the zebra. “Don’t worry, Dave, this is nothing like that. Using a Ouija board is like walking blindfolded into Times Square and shouting that you’d like to talk to someone. A divination isn’t anything like that. We simply ask for the Goddess’ help, for her to communicate with us and share some of her knowledge. There might be a little bit of pain from when Cassandra draws blood, but it’s like being poked by a thumbtack, it’s nothing.”

“Wait, what? Blood?” David ejaculated as he set his glass down carelessly, nearly spilling it across the counter. “I thought you said you guys didn’t do sacrifices and stuff.”

Tanya shook her head while rolling her eyes. “It’s not like that at all. It’s just this thing, Cassandra says that in order to increase the potency of some spells, you need to anchor them with the essence of the participants, and that blood just works best for that.”

Knowing as much about witchcraft as he did non-Newtonian physics, David had little choice but to take her word for it, even if it did sound sketchy to him. “Well, okay, if you say so. But you’re really not making a great case for not being some sort of crazy cult or something like that.”

“But David,” Tanya said, leaning closer, her eyes open frighteningly wide. “We are a crazy cult.” She laughed and slapped him on the arm as she took a step back. Her laughter quickly cut off and she winced apologetically when David flinched and rubbed his aching shoulder.

Cassandra called from the doorway, “Well kids, good news, Susan is on her way over, so as soon as she gets here, we should be good to go.”

“Oh shi-shoot, I’d better go get everything together,” Tanya said before rushing over to a nearby door. As she disappeared through it, David could see a garage densely packed with non-automotive related paraphernalia beyond.

Ambling over to the spot Tanya had just vacated, Cassandra leaned against the counter, regarding David as she crossed her arms under her ample chest. “Sooo, I’m sure I don’t, but just to be sure, I’m not going to have to warn you that what happens in the woods stays in the woods, do I? I wouldn’t want you to tell your friends about it, and then they tell their friends, and so on. I have a hard enough time at PTA meetings as it is, without them turning into literal witch hunts.”

David shook his head. “No ma’am. I mean, Cassandra.” He unconsciously took a half-step away to make the distance between them more comfortable. “For one thing, you and Tanya are the first people to take me seriously about all of this; who are willing to help me. There’s no way I’d say anything to anyone if you don’t want me to. Besides which, I don’t have any friends to tell in the first place.” He’d meant to play it off as a joke, but the sentiment struck too closely to the truth, and he could only offer Cassandra a pained smile.

Cassandra’s eyes flicked down to his feet, and then scanned back up to his face. With a self-satisfied smile she said, “Good. That’s what I like to hear, a boy who knows how to be discrete while still … expressing his gratitude.” She stepped closer, causing David to back away again. “Don’t get me wrong, I can be an absolute witch to those who cross me, but for the people in my good graces, I can be quite … accommodating.” She reached out and brushed something off of David’s shoulder, casually running a finger along his jaw as she did so. David replied to her throaty chuckle with a rigor mortis smile.

Feeling increasingly out of his depth, and in the possible need of an adult, David glanced toward the garage door Tanya had disappeared through, but it remained stubbornly closed. Thinking quickly, David slipped away from Cassandra’s grasp and walking backwards, jerked a thumb toward the rest of the house. “Wow, I uh, I think all that coffee’s getting to me. Do you mind if I use your restroom? I should probably go before we do the whole magical spell thing.”

Cassandra smirked as she watched him retreating. “Sure. Down the hall, second door on the right.”

“Thanks,” David said as he not quite ran away.

“Let me know if you need any help in there,” Cassandra called out after him. David pretended he hadn’t heard her.

He easily found the half-bath and barricaded himself inside. Well, as barricaded as a hollow interior door could allow. He did actually have to go, but after finishing his business and washing his hands, he killed some time by leaning on the pedestal sink and tracing the changes in his face via the bathroom’s mirror. The swelling around his eye had gone down, and it didn’t hurt nearly as much, but the bruise was rather spectacular. There were a few minor scratches here and there, but they had already begun to fade. He’d lost some weight, and was appearing a bit more gaunt that he remembered, but there wasn’t any major change, like his hair turning white from when the cars had smashed so hard, or something. For the most part he was just searching for an excuse not to go back out there and spend more time alone with Cassandra. He was honestly grateful to her already for taking his experiences seriously and promising to help him. If she did manage to get rid of his demons, or whatever they were, then … well, he’d burn that bridge when he got to it.

His sojourn in the bathroom was abridged when he heard someone knocking at the front door. A moment later and he heard Cassandra welcoming someone, warmly inviting them in. Taking that as his cue, David unlocked the bathroom door and silently stepped into the hallway. In the foyer, Cassandra was conversing with another woman. Her ears flicked back in his direction and Cassandra turned to regard David affectionately over her shoulder. “David, come here and meet Susan,” she said beckoning him with a flip of her tail.

Under the scrutiny of both women, David found himself having to manually think about how to walk normally down the hallway. As he drew closer, he found that Susan was a tall, lithe, blond golden retriever, taller at least than Cassandra, though a bit shorter than Tanya. She was wearing a dark blue shirtdress with matching flats, revealing her thin, soft appearing legs. Her long hair was gathered into a ponytail held in place by a butterfly-like hair clip. Her half-lidded emerald green eyes warmly welcomed David and her tail languidly wagged in cheerful anticipation.

“Susan, this is Tanya’s friend, David.” Cassandra said, standing off to one side. “David, this is Susan.”

“Pleased to meet you,” David said, leaning forward to offer his hand before remembering that handshakes were now verboten and awkwardly trying to abort mid gesture.

Susan paid no mind to his faux pas and reached out to grasp his hand with both hers. She peered deeply into his eyes for a moment before saying, “It’s so nice to meet you, David. You must be quite the popular boy, your aura is so calm and comforting. You feel like a warm blanket fresh from the dryer.”

Nonplussed, David was frozen for a couple of seconds while he tried to parse what Susan had just said. Eventually though, he just settled for a rather neutral, “Uh, thank you.” He glanced down at where his hand was still captured in her warm embrace, wondering how to extricate himself and hopefully put a little distance between them.

He was saved when the sound of the garage door opening and closing came from the kitchen. A moment later and Tanya appeared in the hall, bearing two stuffed messenger bags. “I think I’ve got everything,” she said to Cassandra. She patted one bag. “Candles, purified water, goblet, pentacle, and a tablecloth in this one, and our robes in this one,” she patted the other. 

“Excellent,” Cassandra said. “I’ll go get the athame and we should be all set.” She breezed by David, giving his arm a squeeze as she headed in the direction of the bedrooms.

Susan stepped forward, still holding David’s hand with one of hers, the other had moved up to gently rest on his bicep. “Good morning, Tanya, I was just meeting your beau, David, here. He seems like a nice boy.”

Tanya let out something that was part cough and part choke. “We, we’re just friends,” she said in a voice about an octave higher than her normal tone.

With a warm glance between Tanya and David, Susan said, “Oh. Okay.” She finally let go of David. “Well, I hope that you two are friends for a long, long time. Your auras mesh so well it would be a shame otherwise.”

David let out a reflexive chuckle. “I hope so too.” He looked toward Tanya. “I mean, if that’s okay with you. You’re like the coolest girl I’ve met, and it’d be awesome if we could keep hanging out once this is all over.”

Tanya chuckled and looked away as she absently twirled a few strands of her mane that had broken free from her ponytail. “Yeah, I think I’d like that too.”

There was an awkward, but not unpleasant atmosphere filling the entryway. The two young adults mysteriously having trouble meeting each other’s eyes, and the older woman who watched over them with a wistful smile.

“Well, everyone ready to go?” Cassandra asked as she padded back down the hallway, a small satchel hanging near her waist, its strap spelunking in the valley between her breasts.

Everyone chorused their willingness to depart, and after they all secured their footwear, followed Cassandra out of the house. To David’s surprise, instead of heading toward a car or something, Cassandra led them around the side of the house and into the grassy field that encompassed the backyards of the houses on the cul-de-sac. Off in the distance David could see the faded plastic of a playground abutted against the single story outline of a school. Adjacent to the school and the suburb was a distant treeline. While they’d been inside, the clouds that had dotted the horizon had multiplied, and though they were currently enjoying the sun, the distant trees were already covered in shadow.

It was toward that treeline that Cassandra led them, Susan just behind her, Tanya following them, and David bringing up the rear. Around the houses, the grass was closely cropped, but just beyond their invisible property line, it began to grow long and unruly. Through the long, probably tick filled foliage, there was something like a trodden path of bent plants that they followed.

As they drew closer to the woods and the sun disappeared behind the grey clouds overhead, a murder of crows burst from the twisted, naked branches of the trees, rising into the sky with a cacophony of squawks. David was startled for a moment, but the others plunged into the forest without hesitation, causing David to hurry in order to catch up.

The woods themselves were fairly ordinary. The trees were neither very old, or very young. Mostly deciduous, the tree’s brilliant fire-hued leaves were massed on the ground, not yet fully ground into the floor of the forest, but their color was muted beneath the overcast sky. There was a well packed dirt trail laid out at their feet that cut through the underbrush, clear of almost any leaves or other detritus. At first glance it appeared straight, but not too far in the distance it disappeared into the intertwining trees ahead. As the sound of the crows faded into the distance, David realized that there was an oppressive silence filling the void they’d left. It was as if the forest were holding its breath, waiting, watching. The occasional leaf or twig that found its way under his foot sounded as loud as a gunshot in David’s ears, and he found himself scanning their surroundings carefully, searching for any potential threat, unmindful of the fact that Tanya and the others were gradually pulling further ahead of him.

They’d been walking for only a few minutes, but the entrance to the forest had already disappeared behind them. In all directions were similar appearing trees interrupted by random leaf covered mounds and naked undergrowth that looked more like sticks that had been shoved into the ground. The only thing providing a direction was the path they were on, stretching out before and behind them.

The path led them into a slight widening of the forest, where the trees were spaced out a bit further apart, but not enough to be called a clearing. In the center of this space was a collection of massive lichen and moss covered boulders. The path led straight to the rocks’ base, and then curved around them, disappearing around their side. On the face of one of the boulders overlooking the path, partially obscured by the green and brown moss growing over the rock’s surface, someone had painted a black symbol that looked a bit like a hot take on a peace symbol or something.

David paused to more closely examine just what it was while the others continued on and around the rock, disappearing from sight. He’d lifted his hand up to brush away some of the filth obscuring the symbol when he was distracted by the sound of a twig snapping. It hadn’t come from ahead, where the others were. Rather, it sounded as if it had come from further away, off in the woods to David’s left. He froze, his breath held. Slowly he turned first his eyes, and then his head, searching the forest for something, anything, out of place. But all he saw was the same as before, trees, mounds of dead leaves, fallen branches, dormant undergrowth, and silence. David waited for several long seconds, but the forest, like him, was holding its breath.

He was on the cusp of putting the incident down to a squirrel or something, when out of the corner of his eyes, he saw what he’d thought had been a tangle of fallen branches move, turning to the side and disappearing behind a distant tree trunk. “Fuck,” David breathlessly whispered. More loudly, he called out over his shoulder, “Hey, guys, did you see that?” There was no response, and belatedly David realized he was alone.

Keeping an eye on the tree the thing had disappeared behind, David stumbled down the path around the rock, calling out, “Guys! Hey, guys, where are you?” as he went. The boulder seemed larger than it had first appeared, the path tightly hugging its base. Picking up his pace, David noticed another of the funky peace symbols painted on the rock. He passed by it as he continued to follow the curving path. It wasn’t until a few minutes later, when he’d almost broken into a flat out run and reached another of the symbols, that he realized that they hadn’t been different symbols at all. It had always been the same one.

Breathing deeply, both from the exertion as well as a rising sense of panic, David cast about for an explanation, but none was forthcoming. The woods were lovely, dark, and deep, the path at his feet unbroken as it turned around the base of the boulder. “Guys? Tanya? Can anyone hear me?” He yelled. Again, there was no response. Briefly he considered climbing the boulder, but its cold surface was smooth and slippery from the moss growing on it. Uncertainly he turned and took a few steps back in the direction he’d come, but a nauseating sense of dread settled in his stomach and his faltering steps slowed to a stop. He glanced around for any hope of succor, but he was disappointed. Resigned to his fate, David’s leaden steps turned and he continued on down the path.

For a while, it continued to follow the curved contour of the rock, but finally, just as David was trying to remember how long it would take to die in the wilderness, the path turned away and rose sharply between the roots of two gnarly trees before dropping and disappearing into the depths of the forest. Relief washed over him as David hurried, nearly tripping down the slope of the path past its apex due to its unexpectedly steep grade. As he recovered from his near fall, he looked up to find Tanya standing a bit further up the trail.

David slumped in relief and called out to her. “Hey, Tanya.” However, the zebra, who was around fifty feet or so up the path, facing away from him, gave no indication of hearing him. Frowning, David called out again, “Hey, Tanya,” and began to walk toward her. But, as he drew closer, Tanya began to walk as well, still facing away from him, without any acknowledgment she’d heard him.

“Hey, wait. Tanya, wait up,” David said loudly as he began to speed walk. Tanya didn’t answer him, but she too began to walk more quickly. The path had begun to narrow and it had become uneven, the trees more dense. David began having to duck low hanging branches and dodge away from clutching brambles. Desperately chasing after Tanya’s back, he nearly fell when a creeping vine snagged his ankle, managing to stay upright when someone grabbed his wrist from behind, using their weight to help pull him back upright.

Whirling around, David found Tanya staring at him in questioning bemusement, as if asking to be let in on the joke. “Hey, Dave, what’s all the shouting about? You okay?”

“Wha-?” David gasped out. He quickly turned, but the other Tanya he’d been chasing had disappeared, taking the path they’d been following with her. Confused, David turned too and fro, taking in his surroundings. He was standing on a relatively tall rise a few feet away from a steep drop down into a rock strewn ravine. In all directions the undergrowth was undisturbed, without there being any hint of there ever having been a trail. An errant wind blew through the tops of the trees, causing a shower of leaves to cascade down. As they tumbled and crashed into each other, it sounded like malicious snickering.

“Come on,” Tanya said kindly, gently pulling on his wrist. “It’s easy to get lost out here. You should stay close.”

Dumbly, David allowed himself to be led away. Once his bewilderment had dwindled a bit, he silently resolved to stick to Tanya like glue from then on out. To that end, he adjusted his hand so that he was clasping hers in his. Tanya glanced back at him, but didn’t say anything as they walked through the forest, their fingers intertwined.


End file.
